Regions: North-East India

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.

The tall reed of Indian riverbanks, and the standard plant for a reed-bed filter.

One enlarged white sepal per flower, so the whole shrub reads as pale bracts.

The forest ancestor of the orchard mango, still fruiting in eastern hill forest.

Glossy drooping new leaves in pink, then white flowers with a gold centre.

Orange-yellow flowers whose scent carries across a whole garden at dusk.

Pink blossom in November, out of season by every other measure — the hill wild cherry.

The tejpatta of the sub-Himalayan tract — three-veined leaves, straight off the tree.

A woody climber with fringed white-and-yellow flowers and a heavy sweet scent.