Regions: south

The tea of the Brahmaputra valley — one bush on a balcony is enough for a pot.

Malabar tamarind — the sour rind of Konkan and Kerala cooking.

A wild relative of the curry leaf from peninsular scrub forest.

A big orange-flowered climber of central forest, dramatic on a strong pergola.

Sweet basil — indigenous cultivation across India long before its pizza career.

Grown for the seed that swells in falooda and summer sherbets.

A small southern shrub with white flowers, long used for skin preparations.

A dark-stemmed shrub of the wet coasts with traditional joint-pain uses.

A creeping mat for the wet edge of a terrace pond or a bowl garden.

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