Regions: West India

The monsoon green that grows itself — heat-proof, rain-proof, ready in a month.

The winter weed worth sowing — mineral-rich leaves through the cold months.

A thick-leaved climbing spinach that thrives in the worst of the monsoon heat.

Needs depth more than width — a 30 cm trough of loose soil beats a wide bed.

Roots below, usable leaves above, and it tolerates a container better than carrot.

One good plant in a 40 cm pot out-yields four crowded ones. Stake it early.

A thorny desert shrub whose resin has been traded for millennia; now endangered.

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

A dry-hill root used to colour oil a deep red; slight above ground, tough below.

Near-indestructible succulent for a bright sill; water only when the soil is dry through.