Chusquea
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 Chusquea quila, inflorescence
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Chusquea is a genus of bamboo with about 120 species. Most of them are mountain clumping bamboos native from southern Mexico to southern Chile and Argentina. They are sometimes referred to as South American mountain bamboos. Unlike most other bamboos, the stems of these species are solid, not hollow.
[edit] Species
C. 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 be the Mapuches indians to make instruments and as lances during the War of Arauco.
C. quila in Spanish Quila grows in difference to the Colihue in archs. It prefers wet places and do not grows above 500 m, were C. coleou becames more dominant. C. quila can form large areas of pure C. quila called Quilantales. Very few vegables can grow under this specie.
[edit] Taxonomy
The genus includes:
- Dendragrostis Jackson
- Rettbergia Raddi
The genus excludes:
- Swallenochloa
