Regions: south

Fast, thirsty and best trained up a net where air can move around it.

A long curling gourd of southern and eastern kitchen gardens.

Pods, beans and green manure from one undemanding monsoon plant.

A tiny monsoon herb that appears in every wet pot, with fruit strung under the leaf.

The lichen of the spice box — not planted, but a reason to keep old trees standing.

Camphor basil — a big grey-green bush that fills a terrace with scent.

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

Feathery-leaved and drought-hardy; one grafted tree feeds a household through winter.

The third triphala fruit, from a broad-crowned tree of dry deciduous forest.

A monsoon-flowering lily of the western hills, grown for its white tuber cluster.