Regions: North India

Bush beans for winter troughs; pole kinds for a balcony net.

The winter sem of the plains, purple-flowered and heavy-cropping on a fence.

A shrubby pulse that stands two years, fixes nitrogen and shelters small birds.

A winter pulse that also gives the sour green leaf of the north.

A short monsoon pulse, sown between crops as much as for the dal.

Sixty days from sowing to dal, and sproutable on a kitchen shelf.

Upright, bell-flowered and ancient; the oilseed of the dry season.

The grain that carries the western desert through a bad monsoon.

Ridged monsoon gourd, quick to climb and quicker to over-mature.

A sedge most people fight as a weed, though its tuber is an old perfume material.