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Roscoea praecox

Roscoea praecox
Photo: Leonora (Ellie) Enking, CC BY-SA 2.0
Family
Zingiberaceae (Ginger family)
Grows as
Perennial
Light
Full sun
Native range
China (S. Yunnan)
Climate
temperate

About

Roscoea praecox is a perennial herbaceous plant occurring in the Yunnan province of China. Most members of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae), to which it belongs, are tropical, but R. praecox, like other species of Roscoea, grows in much colder mountainous regions. It is sometimes grown as an ornamental plant in gardens.

How to grow it

Some Roscoea species and cultivars are grown in rock gardens. They 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. R. praecox has been grown at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where it flowered between May and July. It does not appear to be as widely cultivated as some other species (e.g. it was not included in the Pacific Bulb Society's information on the genus as of October 2011), but was part of a Royal Horticultural Society trial of Roscoea in 2007–2011.

For propagation, see Roscoea: Cultivation.

Where it grows

Roscoea praecox occurs in both shrubby and grassy habitats in mountains between 2,200 and 2,300 metres in the Yunnan province of China.

Other Roscoea plants

Roscoea alpina · Roscoea auriculata · Roscoea australis · Roscoea bhutanica · Roscoea brandisii · Roscoea cangshanensis · Roscoea capitata · Roscoea cautleoides · Roscoea debilis · Roscoea forrestii · Roscoea ganeshensis · Roscoea humeana

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Roscoea praecox 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.

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