Regions: South India

A climbing orchid that must be hand-pollinated flower by flower, at dawn.

A tiny creeping mat for the wet edge of a tub — the softest possible ground cover.

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

The wild ancestor of cultivated rice, still standing in eastern wetlands.

Half the country’s calories — and a bucket of it on a terrace teaches more than any book.

The palmarosa of the Deccan, distilled for a rose-scented oil.

Yellow culms striped green; the ornamental clumping bamboo of Indian gardens.

The deep red night-flowering lily of eastern tanks and temple ponds.

Grows on water or wet mud and crops every fortnight through the monsoon.

Big heart leaves on a wet corner; the corm below and the leaf above both go to the pot.