Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands 439
1. Chusquea abietifolia Griseb., Fl. Brit. W. I.
529. 1864.
Fig. 182. A-D5
Small bamboo, creeping or climbing, attainig
5-10 m in length, forming dense thickets. Culms
cylindrical, 2.5-3.5 cm in diameter, strong,
scabrous when young, becoming smooth when
mature, the internodes 6-14 cm long, the nodes
with numerous minute whorled branches, 4-10
cm long, these with 15-40 leaves. Leaves
alternate, overlapping, narrowly lanceolate, 15-
30 × 2-3 mm, the apex acute, the margins ciliate,
scabrous; the outer ligule ca. 0.2 mm long, the
inner ligule ca. 0.5 mm long; pseudostipules ca.
3. LASIACIS
1 mm long. Inflorescences of few-flowered
panicles, ca. 5 cm long. Spikelets 5.5-7 mm long,
short-pedicellate; glumes oblong, short-aristate,
the lower ones 1-1.5 mm long, the upper ones 3-
5 mm long; sterile flowers oblong-lanceolate, 6-
7 mm long; fertile flowers lanceolate-ovate, 5.5-
6.5 mm long, pubescent and ciliate at the apex;
palea ca. 5 mm long.
Phenology: Not observed.
Status: Native, very rare.
Distribution: Uncommon in moist forests at
600-1205 m in elevation; along the Cordillera
Central. Also in the rest of the Greater Antilles.
Public Forests: Maricao and Toro Negro.
Perennial herbs. Culms cylindrical, lignified, elongate, scandent, decumbent, or erect, branched.
Leaves monomorphic, those of the culm similar to those of the branches; leaf sheath smooth, lacking
setaceous appendages; ligules membranaceous; blades linear to ovate. Inflorescences in the form of a
panicle, the primary branches divaricate, the rachis with a spikelet on the distal portion. Spikelets
adaxial, cylindrical or globose, covered at the base by a glume, with 2 or more bisexual flowers. A
neotropical genus of 16 species.
Key to the species of Lasiacis
1a. Ligules of the upper leaves 0.2-0.6 mm long …….….……………………….… 1. L. divaricata
1b. Ligules of the upper leaves > 1.6 mm long……………………………………….…………….2
2a. Primary branches reflexed or spreading; leaf sheath glabrous or pubescent …….....… 2. L. ligulata
2b. Primary branches appressed or spreading; leaf sheath papillose, hispid, or pubescent....................
…………………………………………………………………………………...... 3. L. sorghoidea
1. Lasiacis divaricata (L.) Hitchc., Contr. U.S.
Natl. Herb. 15: 16. 1910.
Fig. 182. E-G
BASIONYM: Panicum divaricatum L.
SYNONYMS: Panicum bambusoides Desv. ex Ham.
Lasiacis harrisii Nash
Perennial herb; culms 0.5-5 m in length, erect
or scandent; brittle, cylindrical, up to 6 mm in
diameter. Leaves distichous; leaf sheath glabrous;
ligule 0.2-0.6 mm long; blades lanceolate to linear,
flattened, (3-)5-12(-16) cm long by (3-)6-14(20)
mm wide, glabrous except for some hairs on the
midvein. Inflorescences ovate; primary axis 2-
12(20) cm long; secondary axes 2-8(12) cm long.
Spikelets solitary, obovoid, (3.5)3.7-4.3 × 2.1-2.6
mm; lower glumes 1.4-2 mm long, 7-11-veined;
upper glumes 3.5-4.5 mm long, 9-11-veined.
Phenology: Collected in fertile condition from
September to February.
Status: Native, rather common.
Distribution: In areas of secondary vegetation,
along roads and in open and disturbed areas. Also
on Caja de Muerto, Desecheo, Mona, Vieques, St.
Croix, St. John, St. Thomas, Tortola, and Virgin
Gorda; throughout the Antilles, the United States
(Florida), and from Mexico to South America.