Rattan
The cane of eastern furniture — a spiny climbing palm of wet forest.
Grihvatika Knowledge Centre
Regions: East India
Wild Banana
The wild banana of the north-east — seedy fruit, but flowers and stem are food.
Vetiver
Khus — a grass whose roots hold a slope together and scent a summer room.
Lemon Grass Wild
East Indian lemongrass, distilled in the north-east for citral oil.
Kans Grass
The silver-plumed grass of autumn riverbanks — Durga Puja in plant form.
Sugarcane
A few canes in a corner give juice, gur and a green screen by October.
Silk Cotton Red
Red February cups feeding every bird in the neighbourhood at once.
Indian Bay Leaf
The tejpatta of north Indian cooking — a hill tree, not the Mediterranean bay.
Long Pepper
A creeping pepper of the eastern and southern forests, with catkin-like spikes.
Betel Leaf
The paan vine — grown in shaded enclosures across Bengal and the east.