[1] Most members of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae), to which it belongs, are tropical, but species of Roscoea grow in much colder mountainous regions.

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

[3] The generic name honours Smith's friend William Roscoe, the founder of the Liverpool Botanic Garden[4] (remnants of which can now be found at Croxteth Hall).

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 found in alpine grassland, rock faces, terraced walls, clearings and woodland edges; sometimes exposed to the full sun and sometimes in the shade of other herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees.

[9][10] Pollen transfer occurs when a fly pushes against the staminal appendages that extend from the base of the stamen at the entrance of the corolla tube.

When grown at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, R. purpurea emerges from the ground only in June, flowering from late July to early September.

However, plants in cultivation vary, particularly in the colour of the leaf sheaths, which may be plain green or marked with red, so that the RHS considered that a form name was more appropriate, and the AGM was given to R. purpurea f.