Seasons: Monsoon

The kusha grass of ritual, holding sandy soil across the northern plains.

Silver plumes across the riverbanks after the monsoon; the kans of the floodplain.

The anjan of dry pasture — a fodder grass that greens the Thar within days of rain.

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.

The southern vasaka — a shade-tolerant shrub with white hooded flowers.

Flowers nearly all year in a warm city, and sunbirds find it within a week.

A hardier deciduous hibiscus for the hills, flowering through the monsoon.

One enlarged white sepal per flower, so the whole shrub reads as pale bracts.

Blue flower sprays and orange berries at once; the standard clipped Indian hedge.