Politician welcoming new marina with an Asian Pod (8)
I believe the answer is:
tamarind
'an asian pod' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both plants as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'politician welcoming new marina' is the wordplay.
'politician' becomes 'td' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'welcoming' means one lot of letters goes inside another (in sense of 'inviting in').
'new' is an anagram indicator.
'marina' with letters rearranged gives 'amarin'.
'td' going around 'amarin' is 'TAMARIND'.
'with' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tamarind that I've seen before include "Tropical African tree" , "Tree providing Asian flavouring" , "Large tropical seedpod with tangy pulp -- mad train (anag)" , "Seed pod pulp eaten fresh or cooked with rice and fish or preserved in curries and chutneys" , "exotic fruit" .)