Regions: west

An enormous umbrella crown of ferny leaves that folds shut before rain.

Cream powder-puff flowers, then papery pods that rattle all winter.

A scrambling roadside shrub with palmate leaves and small blue flower spikes.

Red brushes of stamens on drooping branches; a hardy naturalised garden tree.

Yellow flower spires and copper seed pods; the summer partner to the gulmohar.

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.

Crocodile-bark and big leathery leaves; the tasar silk tree of central India.

The true ashoka — orange flower clusters on a small shade-loving tree of wet forest.