South Asia is home to many plants that have become central to British life - tea, cotton, spices, as well as medicinal plants and dyes, textiles and beauty products. Apart from providing easy navigation for browsing of plant names, uses, history and growing tips for South Asian plants, the newly launched Plant Cultures website provides stories from community projects and an image library. There are pages mapping a journey of plant discovery: their place in empires - their rise and fall - food, gardens, life, medicine, places, the sacred and spiritual, and trade.

The 25 plants featured in Plant Cultures are:

Rice - Oryza sativa. Together, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh grow about 30% of the global today of paddy rice. Rice is the staple food of 65% India's population and its cultivation is a major source of employment. It can be seem in the Water Lily House at Kew.

Sugar Cane - saccharum officinarum. Originated in New Guinea where it has been known since about 6000BC. From about 1000BC its cultivation gradually spread along human migration routes to Southeast Asia and India and east into the Pacific. Production of sugar by boiling the cane juice was first discovered in India, most likely during the first millennium BC.

Tea - Camellia Sinensis. The origin of tea, and whether a truly ' wild' plant still exists, is not clear. Camellia sinensis var sinensis is probably native to western Yunnan, while Camellia sinensis var assamica is native to the warmer parts of Assam (India), Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and southern China. By 1770 Britain was drinking its way through 2 million kg tea each year, a figure which had risen to 9 million cups by 1801 in the heyday of the East India Company.

Mango - Mangifera indica. The national fruit of India, and popular in Britain as a fruit and as chutney to accompany curry. In South Asia it is connected with folklore and legends across many religions. The fruits, leaves and trees are associated with fortune, plenty and fertility. Fossil records found in northeast India, Myanmar and Bangladesh date back 25 to 30 million years: experts identified a 65 million year old leaf fossil in Meghalaya, India, to be a close relative of the current day mango.

Coconut - Cocos Nucifera. Coconut trees are palms that grow up to 30 metres high. Known as the 'tree of life' because of their huge variety of used, coconuts grow throughout the tropics. The ultimate in multipurpose plants: their leaves are used for clothing, mats, baskets and roofing; their fruits provide food, drink oil, medicine, containers, fibre for ropes and mats; and their wood helps build houses and boats.

Turmeric - Curcuma Longa. Turmeric is thought to have come from south and South East Asia, probably India. It is a domesticated plant, growing as an upright herb to about 1m tall. Turmeric is a main ingredient of curry powder but has been used for many conditions in traditional medicine in India: it has been shown to have anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-oxidant, anti-ulcer, anti-inflammatory and possibly anti-cancer effects.(see top cookery writer Manju Malhi's cold remedy on the website).

Tamarind - Tamarindus indica. Tamarind is also known by the name 'Indian date' because of its resemblance to brown and sticky dates. Extracts are used in flavouring products such as Worcester Sauce and in a special Indian seafood pickle called "tamarind fish". The sugared pulp can be used to make confectionary and extracts from the seeds are used to produce thickening agents and as a stabilizer in ice cream.

Garlic - Allium sativum. Garlic is a strongly aromatic bulb crop that has been cultivated for thousands of years. Today it is renowned throughout the world for its distinctive flavour as well as health giving properties. South Asia is no exception in using garlic in both cooking and medicine. Garlic is an easily grown bulb in the British Isles, just needing good soil and a sunny position outside.

Ginger - Zingiber officinale. Dried, powdered ginger was exported form India to Europe in Roman times. Fresh stem ginger is a recent arrival in European shops linked to the popularity of Asian cookery. The word Zingiber is thought to come from the Sanskrit word singabera which was from Arabic and Greek works meaning 'shaped like a horn'. It probably got its name because the rhizomes look like deer's antlers.

Black Pepper - Piper nigrum. Hot and pungent black pepper is one of the most popular spices in the world. (Vicky Bhogal's recipe can be seen on www.plantcultures.org.uk). Produced from the dried berries of Piper nigrum, the berries from Malabar and Tellicherry, Kerala are highly regarded in the trade for their flavour and pungency, it has many uses in Ayurvedic medicine from aiding digestion or treating diabetes, anaemia and piles!

Cardamom - Elettaria cardamomum. Native to parts of India, Sri Lanka and South East Asia where it occurs in the wild. It has been introduced to other parts of Asia and is widely cultivated for its aromatic seeds used as flavouring for savoury and sweet dished. Whole and ground cardamom seeds are added to flavour coffee, tea, confectionery and baked goods, until the 19th century, the world's supply of cardamom came mainly from the wild populations in the Cardamom Hills of the Western Ghats of India. Although cardamom now comes from cultivated sources, India is still one of the major suppliers. See Bharti Vyas's top tip at www.plantculture.org.uk

Chilli Pepper - Capsicum. Surprisingly from the same family, Solanaceae, as the tomato and potato. The Latin name Capsicum comes from a Greek-based derivative of 'kapto' meaning 'to bite' - reference to heat or pungency. Capsicum also contains compounds used in western medicine in a variety of preparations from cough mixture to ointments for muscle and joint pain, and in cosmetic products.

Betelnut - Areca catechu. A slender, single-stemmed palm tree, up to 30m high with a crown of 8-12 leaves at the top. The fruits range in colour from yellow through orange to red, 5cm in diameter and oval. There is one seed (called the 'nut') inside the fruit and it varies in shape from oval to round. The palm is cultivated for the hard, dried inner layer (endosperm) of its seeds. This is chewed by people in south Asia as a stimulant and masticatory.

Curry Leaf - Murraya keonigii. A fast-growing deciduous shrub or small tree with deep roots and scented leaves. The leaves are an important ingredient in curry in south India and Sri Lanka. Surprisingly British curry powder does not generally contain curry leaf, fans will be pleased to know it can be grown at home. See the website for growing tips.

Neem Tree - Azadirachta indica. The species is thought to have originated in Assam in India and Myanmar, where it is common throughout the central dry zone. Later it became naturally distributed throughout much of the Indian subcontinent and in India there are more than 20 million trees. Neem has been labelled the wonder tree of the humid tropics: many parts of the tree have ant microbial properties and provide effective ingredients for traditional and modern toothpastes, medicines, cosmetics and insect repellents in South Asia. Neem can be found in Kew's Palm House.

Opium Poppy - Papaver somniferum. Opium is used to manufacture medicinal drugs such as codeine and morphine, and for illegal drugs such as heroin. The seeds are edible and tasty and are used in bakery products such as poppy0seeded bread.

Henna - Lawsonia inermis. A tropical shrub or small tree with deliciously scented white flowers carried in large clusters at the ends of the branches once a year, usually after the monsoon in North India, but in the U.K in later summer. However, you'll need a heated greenhouse to grow it all year round in the U.K.

Indigo - Indigofera tinctoria. The leaves of the indigo plant are a major source of natural indigo, a blue dye once used for denim jeans, but now largely replaced by synthetic indigo. Indigo is still grown in some parts of South Asia, and synthetic indigo is widely used for traditional textiles.

Cotton - Gossypium arboretum & G.herbaceum. from cultivated plants from the genus Gossypium, cultivated since ancient times for their fibres which are used as textiles. Cotton has other, more surprising uses too, from medicines and mattresses to seed oil and even sausage skins.

Hemp - Cannabis sativa. Hemp was probably first grown for its oil (from the seeds) and fibre (from the stems). In South Asia hemp is grown as an oil crop and for medicinal and ritual uses. There is new interest in many countries in hemp as an environment-friendly fibre crop. It replaces synthetic materials such as plastics.

Banyan - Ficus benghalensis. The English name comes from 'banyans' or 'banians', the Hindu traders seen resting or carrying out their business under the tree canopy. The trees have aerial roots - running from branches to the ground - Which enable trees to become very large - up to 200 metres in diameter and providing much needed shade. Banyan is used in the population of shellac, and ingredient of French Polish, but it is also widely used in tooth-care products.

Sandalwood - Santalum album. Distributed in South India, Sri Lanka, the Malay Archipelago, northern Australia, China and Taiwan, Sandalwood trees are the source of an attractive and fragrant wood. This is popular for woodcarving, and is the source of sandal oil, much used in perfumery and incense. Sadly, the popularity of sandalwood has led to severe conservation problems. Due to over-harvesting, hardly any mature trees exist in the wild anymore. Can be seen in the Temperate House at Kew.

Holy basil - Ocimum tenuiflorum. Closely related to culinary basil, holy basil is known as tulsi in South Asia and is an important sacred plant in Hinduism. As with many species of plants used in Asia, the religious uses of the plants are often linked with their medicinal uses. For example, holy basil was frequently grown in large vessels in the courtyards of Hindu forts and temples to cleanse the body.

Lotus - Nelumbo nucifera. Lotus is an aquatic plant that grows throughout India. It is one of the world's most celebrated flowers and symbolic of eternity, plenty and good fortune. The flowers have been held sacred in Asia and the Middle East for over 5,000 years and frequently occur in Hindi and Buddhist art and Literature. Lotus is a wholly edible species and is cultivated as a food plant in China, Japan, Hawaii, India and Korea.

Marigold - Tagetes erecta, T.patula. Marigold flowers have may uses in ceremonies in Asia and the Middle East. The garlands given to visitors are usually made from marigold flowers. The bright yellow and orange flowers are grown as ornamentals in gardens; they look lovely and will also deter flies. Flowers are used in the traditional Pimms drink in Asia, where flower petals are added to ice cubes.

For more details about these plants and other information, visit the Plant Cultures website.

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