Seasons: Winter

A pouched terrestrial orchid of the eastern Himalaya, cool-growing and slow.

A peppery salad green for a shady tray of running or frequently changed water.

A thorny yellow-wooded Himalayan shrub with blue berries and traditional root use.

The chuli of Ladakh and Kinnaur — blossom in April, fruit and kernel oil by July.

Pink blossom in November, out of season by every other measure — the hill wild cherry.

A Himalayan cherry with long fruit racemes that thrushes and bulbuls strip in weeks.

The banj oak that holds the water in a Himalayan hillside; slow, dense and vital.

Big palmate leaves and white flower candles in the western Himalayan valleys.

The plane tree of Kashmir, planted for four centuries and unmistakable in autumn.

Long soft needles in fives; the pine of the mid-Himalayan slopes.