Regions: East India

Silver plumes across the riverbanks after the monsoon; the kans of the floodplain.

The deep red night-flowering lily of eastern tanks and temple ponds.

Grows on water or wet mud and crops every fortnight through the monsoon.

The same lotus, grown in deep mud for the crisp rhizome of the Kashmiri kitchen.

Big heart leaves on a wet corner; the corm below and the leaf above both go to the pot.

Enormous upright leaves for a wet shaded corner — architecture rather than a crop.

A small creeping marsh herb for the shallow edge of a tub pond.

Spokes of leaf on a green stem — the marginal plant that makes a tub read as a pond.

The world’s most stubborn weed, and an aromatic tuber used for centuries.

Brown flower spikes over strap leaves; the reed that cleans a village pond.