Regions: Himalaya & the hills

Egg-shaped tart fruit on a soft-wooded small tree of the eastern hills.

The squash that covers a whole roof in one season across the eastern hills.

The loose-skinned orange of the Khasi and Jaintia hills, ripe in December.

Hard glossy grain used as food, as beads and as a brewing grain in the hills.

A short-season millet of the northern hills, sown when the season has been lost.

Fan-shaped leaflets on black wiry stalks — the fern of a shaded bathroom window.

A pouched terrestrial orchid of the eastern Himalaya, cool-growing and slow.

The blue vanda of Meghalaya — tessellated flowers, and protected in the wild.

Cane orchid of the eastern hills, flowering along last year’s bare canes.

A tiny creeping mat for the wet edge of a tub — the softest possible ground cover.