Regions: North-East India

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

A rosette epiphyte that grows on a tree fork or a shaded wall bracket.

A white-backed fern that colonises damp walls and cut slopes on its own.

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

The kopou phul of Assam — hanging foxtail sprays, and the flower of Bihu.

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.

An antler-shaped epiphytic fern of Assam’s forests, mounted on a board.

The sour leaf of Assam and Manipur, cooked with fish and pork.