Regions: North-East India

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

A dark-stemmed shrub of the wet coasts with traditional joint-pain uses.

A creeping mat for the wet edge of a terrace pond or a bowl garden.

Fat red flowers on a bare grey trunk, then pods of cotton that blow down every street.

The true ashoka — orange flower clusters on a small shade-loving tree of wet forest.

A tall hill-forest tree with pinnate leaves and scented pink-tinged timber.

The north-eastern shoot bamboo — fermented shoots are a regional staple.

The tea of the Brahmaputra valley — one bush on a balcony is enough for a pot.

Black cardamom of Sikkim — deep shade under alder, at hill altitudes.

The ghost chilli of Nagaland — a genuine regional speciality, and ferocious.