Seasons: Monsoon

A slender Western Ghats evergreen with purple fruit that souring curries depend on.

The forest ancestor of the orchard mango, still fruiting in eastern hill forest.

A tough dry-forest tree with papery winged seeds that blanket the ground in March.

The scented heartwood tree of the southern Deccan — a hemiparasite that needs a host.

The red-timbered endemic of the Andhra hills; slow, valuable and heavily poached.

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.

Cream powder-puff flowers, then papery pods that rattle all winter.