Roscoea auriculata is a perennial herbaceous plant occurring in the eastern Himalayas, in Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal and Sikkim.

Most members of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae), to which it belongs, are tropical, but R. auriculata, like other species of Roscoea, grows in much colder mountainous regions.

Like all members of the genus Roscoea, it dies back each year to a short vertical rhizome, to which the tuberous roots are attached.

When growth begins again, "pseudostems" are produced: structures which resemble stems but are actually formed from the tightly wrapped bases (sheaths) of its leaves.

[7][8] The specific epithet auriculata refers to the two ear-shaped (auriculate) outgrowths at the junctions of the leaf blades and sheaths.

The unusual mountainous distribution of Roscoea may have evolved relatively recently and be a response to the uplift taking place in the region in the last 50 million years or so due to the collision of the Indian and Asian tectonic plates.

The two clades correspond to a geographical separation, their main distributions being divided by the Brahmaputra River as it flows south at the end of the Himalayan mountain chain.

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.

[8] Roscoea auriculata occurs in grasslands, between 2,400 and 2,700 metres in the Himalayan mountains of Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal and Sikkim.

As they do not appear above ground until late spring or even early summer, they escape frost damage in regions where subzero temperatures occur.