Seasons: Monsoon

The deep red night-flowering lily of eastern tanks and temple ponds.

Grows on water or wet mud and crops every fortnight through the monsoon.

Big heart leaves on a wet corner; the corm below and the leaf above both go to the pot.

Enormous upright leaves for a wet shaded corner — architecture rather than a crop.

A small creeping marsh herb for the shallow edge of a tub pond.

Spokes of leaf on a green stem — the marginal plant that makes a tub read as a pond.

The world’s most stubborn weed, and an aromatic tuber used for centuries.

Brown flower spikes over strap leaves; the reed that cleans a village pond.

The tall reed of Indian riverbanks, and the standard plant for a reed-bed filter.

The palmarosa of the Deccan, distilled for a rose-scented oil.