Regions: West India

A slow, tough native tree for a hot courtyard, with fruit that makes the summer sherbet.

The street tree of the plains; even a potted seedling supplies leaves for a pest spray.

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

A white-rooted asparagus of the north-western hills, grown on terraces and bunds.

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.

A dry-country shrub with yellow flowers, tough enough for a Rajasthan roof.

Fine blue-white flowers over ferny leaves, then the black seed of the spice box.