Regions: Himalaya & the hills

Ladakh and Himachal fruit — blossom in March, fruit in June, dried for winter.

A cold-desert shrub of Ladakh, nitrogen-fixing and vitamin-dense.

Buransh — scarlet trusses across the mid-Himalaya in March.

The Himalayan cedar — a slow, magnificent, cold-climate conifer.

The tejpatta of north Indian cooking — a hill tree, not the Mediterranean bay.

The timber tree of the north Indian plain, nitrogen-fixing and fast.

Fruit in March, silkworm leaves all summer, and shade in between.

Two crops a year in the west, and content in a large container.

A sub-Himalayan scrambler with brick-red bracts through the cool months.

Orchid-like flowers in February, and buds that go into the north-Indian kitchen.