While most members of the ginger family are tropical, Roscoea species are native to cooler mountainous regions of the Himalayas, China and its southern neighbours.

[1][2] Typically they grow in grassland, in screes or on the edges of deciduous woodland at heights of 1,200–5,000 metres (3,900–16,400 ft), coming into growth at the start of the monsoon season.

Like many members of the Zingiberales (the order to which the gingers belong), Roscoea has pseudostems; structures which resemble stems but are actually formed from the tightly wrapped bases of its leaves ("sheaths").

[5] Like other members of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae), Roscoea flowers have a complex structure (superficially resembling that of an orchid,[6] although they are not related).

[1] The name honours Smith's friend William Roscoe, the founder of the Liverpool Botanic Garden[11] (remnants of which can now be found at Croxteth Hall).

[13] A 2002 classification of the family Zingiberaceae, based on molecular phylogenetic analysis, placed Roscoea in the tribe Zingibereae, subfamily Zingiberoideae.

[4] Cautleya R. auriculata R. alpina R. brandisii R. purpurea R. tumjensis R. capitata R. ganeshensis R. tibetica R. schneideriana R. scillifolia R. australis R. cautleyoides R. wardii R. humeana R. praecox The two clades correspond to a geographical separation, the main distributions being divided by the section of the Brahmaputra River which flows south at the end of the Himalayan mountain chain.

[16] Roscoea species were then divided into two distinct clades, simultaneous with the rapid extrusion of Indochina and accompanied by another Himalayan uplift around the Oligocene/Miocene boundary.

[16] It has been suggested that the genus may have originated in this area and then spread westwards along the Himalayas and eastwards into the mountains of China and its southern neighbours,[4] supported by biogeographic reconstruction.

[17] R. ngainoi, discovered after the phylogenetic analysis discussed above, is found roughly in an area in-between these two species, in the Indian state of Manipur.

Later research showed that plants from Bhutan and southern Tibet which had previously been considered to be R. tibetica were actually a new species, R. bhutanica, which belongs to the Himalayan clade.

[4] As of August 2024[update], the Plants of the World Online accepts the following species of Roscoea:[1] The hybrid R. auriculata × R. cautleyoides has occurred in cultivation, and has been given the name R. × beesiana Cowley & C.Whitehouse.

In a Royal Horticultural Society trial, R. ganeshensis and R. purpurea f. rubra were the most harmed by excessive sunlight; R. cautleyoides, R. × beesiana and R. scillifolia the most resistant.

In cultivation they do not appear above ground until late spring or even early summer; thus if planted deeply enough, up to 15 cm (6 in), they escape frost damage in regions where subzero temperatures occur.