Regions: South India

A slender Western Ghats evergreen with purple fruit that souring curries depend on.

A tough dry-forest tree with papery winged seeds that blanket the ground in March.

The scented heartwood tree of the southern Deccan — a hemiparasite that needs a host.

The red-timbered endemic of the Andhra hills; slow, valuable and heavily poached.

Glossy drooping new leaves in pink, then white flowers with a gold centre.

Orange-yellow flowers whose scent carries across a whole garden at dusk.

White flowers with orange tubes that open at night and are on the ground by dawn.

The wild amla of the southern hills, smaller-fruited and tougher than the orchard kind.

The sap palm of Bengal and the Deccan, tapped in winter for nolen gur.

A woody climber with fringed white-and-yellow flowers and a heavy sweet scent.