''Roscoea schneideriana '' is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

herbaceous plant Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

found in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

and

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

. Most members of the ginger family ( Zingiberaceae), to which it belongs, are tropical, but ''R. schneideriana'', like other species of ''

Roscoea ''Roscoea'' is a genus of perennial plants of the family (biology), family Zingiberaceae (the ginger family). Most members of the family are tropical, whereas ''Roscoea'' species are native to mountainous regions of the Himalayas, China and its ...

'', grows in much colder mountainous regions.

Description

''Roscoea schneideriana '' is a

. Like all members of the genus ''Roscoea'', it dies back each year to a short vertical

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

, to which are attached the tuberous roots. When growth begins again, "

pseudostem A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant, the other being the root. It supports leaves, flowers and fruits, transports water and dissolved substances between the roots and the shoots in the xylem and phloem, stores nutrien ...

s" are produced: structures which resemble stems but are actually formed from the tightly wrapped bases (sheaths) of its leaves. Plants are tall with usually four to six leaves, although there may be as few as two. The leaves form a rosette at the end of the pseudostem and have narrow blades usually long by wide, usually curved (falcate), hairless (glabrous), and with a pointed tip. Flowers appear in July to August in the wild. The stem (peduncle) of the flower spike (inflorescence) is either held within the leaf sheaths or sometimes slightly extended from them. The flowers usually open one at a time and are purple or white. The ellipse-shaped bracts which subtend the flowers are . Each flower has the typical structure for ''

'' (see the diagrams in that article). There is a tube-shaped outer

calyx Calyx or calyce (plural "calyces"), from the Latin ''calix'' which itself comes from the Ancient Greek ''κάλυξ'' (''kálux'') meaning "husk" or "pod", may refer to: Biology * Calyx (anatomy), collective name for several cup-like structures ...

, long, with a two-toothed apex. Next the three

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s (the corolla) form a tube long, terminating in three lobes, an elliptical upright central lobe, about long and two similarly sized but somewhat narrower side lobes. Inside the petals are structures formed from four sterile

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s (

staminodes In botany, a staminode is an often rudimentary, sterile or abortive stamen, which means that it does not produce pollen.Jackson, Benjamin, Daydon; ''A Glossary of Botanic Terms with their Derivation and Accent''; Published by Gerald Duckworth & C ...

): two lateral staminodes form what appear to be small upright petals, which are about long; two central staminodes are fused to form a lip or labellum, long by about wide. The labellum does not bend downwards and is split into two lobes for about half its length. The single functional stamen has a yellow

anther The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

, about long, with long spurs formed from the connective tissue between the two capsules of the anther. The stigma is funnel-shaped.

Taxonomy

''Roscoea schneideriana'' was first described by Ludwig Loesener in 1923 as ''R. yunnanensis'' var. ''schneideriana''. (''R. yunnanensis'' is now regarded as a synonym of '' R. cautleyoides''.) Jill Cowley raised it to a full species in 1982.

Evolution and phylogeny

The family Zingiberaceae is mainly tropical in distribution. 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 Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large te ...

. Species of ''Roscoea'' divide into two clear groups, a Himalayan clade and a "Chinese" clade (which includes some species from outside China). The two clades correspond to a geographical separation, being divided by the

Brahmaputra River The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Tibet, northeast India, and Bangladesh. It is also known as the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, Luit in Assamese, and Jamuna River in Bangla. It ...

as it flows south at the end of the Himalayan mountain chain. It has been suggested that the genus may have originated in this area and then spread westwards along the Himalayas and eastwards into the mountains of China and its southern neighbours. ''R. schneideriana'' is in the Chinese clade, as would be expected from its distribution.

Distribution and habitat

''Roscoea schneideriana '' is found in

and

, in China, growing at altitudes of in mixed forests, moist stony grassland and rocky mountain cliffs.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7367560 schneideriana Flora of Tibet Plants described in 1923 Flora of Sichuan Flora of Yunnan