Regions: North India

Thorny, nitrogen-fixing and useful on land nobody else will plant.

Central India’s most important livelihood tree — flowers, oil and shade.

The dominant tree of eastern and central forest; only for reforestation planting.

A riverbank giant with pale bark — a campus or park tree, not a pot.

The dry-country bamboo of central India, solid-stemmed and drought-hardy.

Sacred, enormous and the most valuable bird tree in any Indian city.

The tree that becomes a grove; only for parks, campuses and village greens.

Figs in bunches straight off the trunk, feeding birds, bats and monkeys.

Flushes pink-red new leaves in spring; a broad, fast shade tree.

Purple fruit in June and dense evergreen shade for the rest of the year.