Regions: north

The silver-plumed grass of autumn riverbanks — Durga Puja in plant form.

A few canes in a corner give juice, gur and a green screen by October.

Cut-and-carry fodder that regrows every forty days for years.

The wild date of the plains, tapped for gur and fruiting freely.

The tejpatta of north Indian cooking — a hill tree, not the Mediterranean bay.

Desi cotton — the indigenous species, hardier than the imported kinds.

A scrambling hill plant whose root gives a lasting red dye.

The mehndi hedge of the dry west — scented flowers and dye leaves.

Reetha — the washing fruit of the sub-Himalayan tract, from a good shade tree.

Khus — a grass whose roots hold a slope together and scent a summer room.