Roscoea purpurea
Description: Winter dormant. Leafy shoots grow in spring from dormant underground rhizome . Shoots grow up to 15 inches tall. In early summer flowers appear from apical portion of shoot. flowers are various shades of purple ranging from light to dark though dark purple is the norm. Individual flowers last for about 5 days in bloom. Successive flowers appear one at a time, occasionally two flowers at a time over a period of about a month. In autumn the growth dies down and underground rhizomes begin their dormancy for the winter period.
Habitat: Widely distributed along the eastern Himalayan range from Nepal to Bhutan. Grows in open hill slopes in the cooler regions
Ethnobotany: Known as rasagari in Nepali. Rhizomes used as a tonic and rejuvenative
