Regions: North India

The chandni — pinwheel white flowers, glossy leaves and constant flowering in shade.

A soft-haired jasmine that flowers through the cool months on a low wall.

Red brushes of stamens on drooping branches; a hardy naturalised garden tree.

Maroon night flowers on long ropes, then metre-long fruit that alarms everybody.

A tough dry-forest tree with papery winged seeds that blanket the ground in March.

White flowers with orange tubes that open at night and are on the ground by dawn.

A thorny yellow-wooded Himalayan shrub with blue berries and traditional root use.

Singhara — a floating annual grown in ponds and tanks across the north and east.

Bihar’s pond crop — prickly floating leaves and the popped seed of fasting food.

A floating fern that fixes nitrogen — fertiliser and fodder that grows itself.