Seasons: Monsoon

A big orange-flowered climber of central forest, dramatic on a strong pergola.

Sweet basil — indigenous cultivation across India long before its pizza career.

Grown for the seed that swells in falooda and summer sherbets.

A wild desert melon of Rajasthan, dried and powdered as a souring agent.

The pod of the khejri — the vegetable that carries the Thar through summer.

A leafless thorny desert shrub with scarlet flowers and pickling berries.

The ghost chilli of Nagaland — a genuine regional speciality, and ferocious.

Lasoda — sticky green fruit pickled across Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Yongchak — long flat pods eaten across Manipur and Nagaland.

Sesame-like seeds used across the eastern Himalaya in chutney and oil.