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Roscoea australis is a perennial herbaceous plant found in Burma, to the south of all other members of the genus. Most members of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae), to which it belongs, are tropical, but R. australis, like other species of Roscoea, grows in much colder mountainous regions.
R. australis has been described as "not the easiest to grow" when in cultivation at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Only seedlings were being grown at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew when Richard Wilford wrote an account of the cultivation of the genus, saying that Roscoea species generally require a relatively sunny position with moisture-retaining but well-drained soil. As they do not appear above ground until late spring or even early summer, they escape frost damage in regions where subzero temperatures occur.
For propagation, see Roscoea § Cultivation.
Roscoea australis occurs in Chin State, Burma, growing at altitudes of 2,100–2,800 m (6,900–9,200 ft) in grassland and on mountain ridges in the Chin Hills, including Nat Ma Taung (Mt Victoria), where the plant collector Frank Kingdon-Ward in his last expedition in 1956 described it as being abundant on the southern face of the ridge of the mountain. It has also been reported to be an epiphyte. It is isolated from other species of the genus by some 200–300 km (120–190 mi).
Roscoea alpina · Roscoea auriculata · Roscoea bhutanica · Roscoea brandisii · Roscoea cangshanensis · Roscoea capitata · Roscoea cautleoides · Roscoea debilis · Roscoea forrestii · Roscoea ganeshensis · Roscoea humeana · Roscoea kunmingensis
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Roscoea australis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
