Regions: north-east

One tree feeds a street. Green for sabzi, ripe for the sweetest fruit there is.

Passion flower — intricate blooms and the host plant of tawny coster butterflies.

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

A monsoon annual of verandah pots, with seed pods children cannot leave alone.

A Himalayan pseudo-grain that flowers white and feeds every bee for miles.

Big-leaved and happy in a wet corner; corms below, edible leaves above.

One corm fills a large pot and returns a much bigger one in a year.

A winged-stemmed climber storing a heavy tuber under a monsoon trellis.

A Himalayan ginger relative with scented white flowers and aromatic rhizomes.

Golden champa — a tall tree whose flowers are sold by the handful at dusk.