Most members of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae), to which it belongs, are tropical, but R. cautleyoides, 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 are attached the tuberous roots.

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

The spelling of Gagnepain's name has been altered to Roscoea cautleyoides by, for example, the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families.

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.

[10] Roscoea cautleyoides occurs in pine forests, low scrub, meadows, and grasslands, between 2,000 and 3,500 metres in the Sichuan and Yunnan provinces of China.

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

Six cultivars were given the Award of Garden Merit:[11] A self-sown yellow seedling with wider leaves and a shorter flower stem (peduncle) than the typical species was initially named R. cautleyoides var.