Seasons: Monsoon

A climbing orchid that must be hand-pollinated flower by flower, at dawn.

A tiny creeping mat for the wet edge of a tub — the softest possible ground cover.

The vine that made the Malabar coast; needs a tree to climb and constant humidity.

The wild ancestor of cultivated rice, still standing in eastern wetlands.

The smoked black cardamom of Sikkim, grown under alder shade.

Half the country’s calories — and a bucket of it on a terrace teaches more than any book.

Small upright fruit on a woody perennial that crops for years in the hills.

The shrub that turns the Nilgiri slopes blue once every twelve years, then dies.

The tree bean of Manipur — long flat pods with a pungent unmistakable smell.

Flame-red reflexed petals on a climbing lily — the state flower of Tamil Nadu.