Regions: South India

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.

Double-lobed aromatic leaves used across the north-east and the far south.

Tiered branches and huge leaves that turn red before falling — a coastal shade tree.

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.

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

Glossy-leaved and salt-tolerant, with seed oil once used in every lamp.