“1 Plant, 100 Uses” explores the many ways familiar Indian plants, leaves, fruits and trees have been part of everyday life — from food and farming to homes, traditions and natural remedies. Each story takes one plant and uncovers the surprising ways people have found it useful, often across generations.

Ask anyone what tamarind is for, and they will talk about chutney, rasam, or the sour candy of childhood. All of that is true, but it covers only one part of the tree. Look at what grows on it, under it, and out of it, and the fruit starts to seem like the least of its talents.

A newcomer that stayed

Tamarind feels so Indian that people are surprised to learn it isn’t. Botanists place its origins in tropical Africa, and it reached South Asia thousands of years ago with human travellers. It has been grown here for so long that it is often taken for a native. Even the name carries the journey. It means ‘date of India’, because early visitors thought the pods came from an Indian palm.

The shade everyone gathers under

Long before anyone thought about its pulp, people valued the tree for its canopy. World Agroforestry’s species database describes the wide crown as a ‘rest and consultation tree’ in villages. The same entry says the tree stands up well to storms, which is why it also works as a windbreak. Anyone who has sat through a hot afternoon under a tamarind will not need........

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