Regions: South India

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

East Indian lemongrass, distilled in the north-east for citral oil.

Red February cups feeding every bird in the neighbourhood at once.

The vine that made the Malabar coast; needs a tree to climb and constant humidity.

Green cardamom of the Western Ghats — deep shade, cool air and steady rain.

A slow evergreen of the wet south-west, harvested as unopened flower buds.

Two spices from one fruit — nutmeg and mace — on the wettest coasts.

Coppiced for its inner bark; the leaf is a spice in its own right.

A creeping pepper of the eastern and southern forests, with catkin-like spikes.

The paan vine — grown in shaded enclosures across Bengal and the east.