Description
Described as long ago as 1822 by Smith, this remains not only scarce, but highly confused. If you trawl the Internet you will sometimes see it described as being the same plant as scillifolia. This is not correct. In fact it is totally distinct. It is simply that gardeners have given the same, wrong names to two distinct species and then confused them!
Roscoea capitata makes plants 30-50 cm tall with several linear leaves 15-25 cm long by about 2.5 cm wide. The flowers are of deep rich purple, each some 2.5 cm long with contrasting white anthers, flowering is in late summer.
In the wild it is found only in Nepal, at around 2300 m and the floras of the area distinguish it from scillifolia. They look very different and can be separated easily as, capitata has no white lines in the throat, it has spatulate (not elliptic) staminodes and (gardeners take note), it has substantially larger flowers (almost twice as large as scillifolia).
This presents no difficulties, just a nice fertile, woodsey soil and a little light shade if you wish. Hardy here.
