Seasons: Monsoon

The desert teak — orange trumpets on bare wood in March, on a tree that needs no water.

A leafless broom-like desert shrub that fixes sand and feeds camels.

Pink or white flowers all year on a shrub that survives the worst urban roadside.

Glossy drooping new leaves in pink, then white flowers with a gold centre.

Orange-yellow flowers whose scent carries across a whole garden at dusk.

White flowers with orange tubes that open at night and are on the ground by dawn.

The tejpatta of the sub-Himalayan tract — three-veined leaves, straight off the tree.

The wild amla of the southern hills, smaller-fruited and tougher than the orchard kind.

The sap palm of Bengal and the Deccan, tapped in winter for nolen gur.

A woody climber with fringed white-and-yellow flowers and a heavy sweet scent.