*** Welcome to piglix ***

Neurolepis

South American mountain bamboos
Chusquea quila.jpg
Chusquea quila
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Monocots
(unranked): Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Subfamily: Bambusoideae
Tribe: Bambuseae
Subtribe: Chusqueinae
Genus: Chusquea
Kunth
Type species
Chusquea scandens
Kunth
Synonyms
  • Rettbergia Raddi
  • Platonia Kunth, 1829, rejected homonym not Mart. 1832 (Clusiaceae) nor Raf. 1808 (Verbenaceae) nor Raf. 1810 (Cistaceae)
  • Dendragrostis Nees
  • Neurolepis Meisn.
  • Coliquea Steud. ex Bibra
  • Planotia Munro
  • Swallenochloa McClure

Chusquea is a genus of evergreen bamboos in the grass family. Most of them are native to mountain habitats in Latin America, from Mexico to southern Chile and Argentina.

They are sometimes referred to as South American mountain bamboos. Unlike most other grasses, the stems of these species are solid, not hollow. Some animals are, to various extents, associated with stands of Chusquea, for example the Inca wren and the plushcap.

Chusquea culeou, the colihue cane, from southern Chile and adjacent western Argentina, is notable as the most frost-tolerant South American bamboo and the only one that has been grown successfully to any extent in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with successful growth as an ornamental plant north to Scotland. The colihue cane was used by the Mapuches Indians to make instruments and as lances during the War of Arauco.

Chusquea quila (in Spanish quila), in contrast to Colihue, has a spreading or vining growth. It prefers wet places and does not grow above 500 metres (1,600 ft), where C. coleou becomes more dominant. Chusquea quila can form pure stands called quilantales. Very few plants can grow under this species.

The genus Chusquea now includes species formerly classified in Dendragrostis, Rettbergia, Swallenochloa, and Neurolepis. The genus has been organized into three subgenera, subg. Rettbergia, subg. Swallenochloa and subg. Chusquea, although molecular evidence only supports a monophyletic subg. Rettbergia.


...
Wikipedia

...