''Chusquea'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

s in the

grass family Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and ...

. Most of them are

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and enterta ...

to mountain habitats in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

, from

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

to southern

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

. 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,

monito del monte The monito del monte or colocolo opossum, ''Dromiciops gliroides'', also called ''chumaihuén'' in Mapudungun, is a diminutive marsupial native only to southwestern South America (Argentina and Chile). It is the only extant species in the ancien ...

, and the plushcap.

Notable species

Chusquea culeou ''Chusquea culeou'', the Chilean bamboo, ( es, caña coligüe or colihue) is a species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae. An evergreen bamboo native to South America, unlike most species within the genus ''Chusquea'', it is frost-to ...

'', the chilean feather bamboo or colihue cane, from southern

and adjacent western

, 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 In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

Northern Hemisphere, with successful growth as an

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that ...

north to

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

. The colihue cane was used by the

Mapuche The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who s ...

s 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 , where ''C. culeou'' becomes more dominant. '' Chusquea quila'' can form pure stands called ''quilantales''. Very few plants can grow under this species. In Chile ''Chusquea'' species have been historically harvested for seed by

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

, but the flowering and seeds of the species, is associated to

mice A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

vermin.

Taxonomy

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''. ;SpeciesMorales, J. F. 2003. Poaceae. 93(3): 598–821. In B. E. Hammel, M. H. Grayum, C. Herrera & N. Zamora Villalobos (eds.) Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.

References

External links

Photo of stems
* ttp://www.sil.si.edu/smithsoniancontributions/Botany/sc_RecordSingle.cfm?filename=sctb-0009 Genera of Bamboos Native to the New World (Gramineae: Bambusoideae) by F.A. McClure {{Taxonbar, from=Q738414 Bambusoideae genera

Notable species

Taxonomy

See also

References

External links