Regions: North India

Brown flower spikes over strap leaves; the reed that cleans a village pond.

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

The slender hill bamboo of Uttarakhand, cut for baskets and matting.

Yellow culms striped green; the ornamental clumping bamboo of Indian gardens.

The kusha grass of ritual, holding sandy soil across the northern plains.

Silver plumes across the riverbanks after the monsoon; the kans of the floodplain.

The anjan of dry pasture — a fodder grass that greens the Thar within days of rain.

The thorny bush that holds the Thar together, browsed by everything and killed by nothing.

The desert teak — orange trumpets on bare wood in March, on a tree that needs no water.

A leafless broom-like desert shrub that fixes sand and feeds camels.