Seasons: Monsoon

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 mehndi hedge of the dry west — scented flowers and dye leaves.

The cane of eastern furniture — a spiny climbing palm of wet forest.

Reetha — the washing fruit of the sub-Himalayan tract, from a good shade tree.

The wild banana of the north-east — seedy fruit, but flowers and stem are food.

A thorny southern climber whose pods have washed hair for centuries.

Khus — a grass whose roots hold a slope together and scent a summer room.

East Indian lemongrass, distilled in the north-east for citral oil.

The silver-plumed grass of autumn riverbanks — Durga Puja in plant form.