22, MISC. PUBLICATION 243, U.S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
4. CHUSQUEA Kunth, Syn. Pl. Aequin. 1: 254. 1822 
Spikelets terete or nearly so, with 2 small or minute (sometimes 
obsolete) glumes, and 2 sterile lemmas usually shorter than the single 
fertile floret. Erect or climbing shrubs, the fertile shoots often in 
fascicles on the usually slender main culm; the panicles usually con- 
densed, sometimes spikelike, rarely open. 
1. Chusquea abietifolia Griseb., Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 529. 1864. 
Jamaica. 
Arundinaria? microclada Pilger, in Urban, Symb. Antill. 5: 289. 
1907. Haiti, Picarda 270, Buch 930. 
Crawling and climbing to a height of 7 m or more, the slender culms 
festooning and forming an entanglement across mountain trails; 
FIGURE 3.—Chusquea adietifolia. Plant, X 14; spikelet, X 10 (sterile plant, Ekman 5718; flowering culm, 
Ekman 8009). 
branchlets about 10 cm long, in whorls, the numerous rigid, spine- 
tipped, scabrous-margined blades 2 to 3 cm long, drying glaucous; 
flowering branches leafy at base, terminating in a small few-flowered, 
nearly simple panicle, the spikelets short-pediceled; very rarely 
flowering (fig. 3). 
Wet woods, mostly above 1,000 m, Greater Antilles. 
Cusa: Pico Potrerillo (prov. Santa Clara), Ekman 18969. Pico 
Tarquino, Bucher 84. Sierra de Imias, Léon 12319. Gato Mountain, 
Léon 10077. Loma de San Juan, Léon 10391. Campo San Benito, 
Shafer 4056. Alto de Iberia, Ekman 8319. Sierra del Cristal, 
Ekman 15945. 
JAMAICA: Cinchona, Nichols 168; Harris 12454 (fertile); Hitchcock 
9715. Catherines Peak, Hitchcock 9734 (fertile) ; Harris 11355 (fertile). 
Blue Mountain Peak, Harris 12496 (fertile); Hitchcock 9375; Maxon 
