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Roscoea purpurea

species of plant

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ163757 ↗
Source-derived summary

Roscoea purpurea is a perennial herbaceous plant occurring in the Himalayas, particularly Nepal. Most members of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae), to which it belongs, are tropical, but species of Roscoea grow in much colder mountainous regions. It is sometimes grown as an ornamental plant in gardens.

Description

Roscoea purpurea is a perennial herbaceous plant. 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 actually formed from the tightly wrapped bases (sheaths) of its leaves. R. purpurea can grow to over 50 cm tall, with wide leaves and a stout pseudostem, although the height varies. The leaf sheaths are pale green or may have a dark reddish-purple tinge.

The stem (peduncle) of the flower spike is hidden by the leaf sheaths. The flowers are the largest of any species in the genus.

Editorial summary

“Roscoea purpurea” enters the record as species of plant. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Roscoea, purpurea and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewUseful for establishing the present vocabulary of the subject while preserving a route back to the evidence on which that vocabulary rests. The current 159-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Roscoea, purpurea and species.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Roscoea purpurea” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Roscoea, purpurea and species provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q163757. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

A general summary may omit uncertainty, sample limits or methodological disagreement that is explicit in the technical record. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Roscoea purpurea”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Roscoea purpurea primary sources, Roscoea purpurea archive and Roscoea research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Roscoea purpurea” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.