Regions: South India

One corm fills a large pot and returns a much bigger one in a year.

Ground cover, greens and tubers from a few cuttings pushed into soil.

The southern staple root — a stem cutting in June is a meal by March.

A winged-stemmed climber storing a heavy tuber under a monsoon trellis.

The fastest useful tree there is — 3 m in a year, edible leaves and pods.

A small tree that lives happily in a deep pot and gives leaves all year.

A short monsoon pulse, sown between crops as much as for the dal.

Sixty days from sowing to dal, and sproutable on a kitchen shelf.

The hardiest pulse of the dry deccan, grown where rain is unreliable.

Upright, bell-flowered and ancient; the oilseed of the dry season.