Neurolepis, a Sensitive Indicator of Human Activity in the High Andes

Abstract

Neurolepis is an easily recognizable bamboo-grass found as the dominant vegetation in many of the wettest and most remote Andean montane grassland areas. The plant has little economic value and is usually burned to produce pasture or facilitate hunting. After burning, regrowth is extremely slow, so that areas previously occupied by Neurolepis are apparently permanently colonized by tussock pasture grasses. It seems likely, therefore, that the existing remnant areas of Neurolepis represent the areas which have not been substantially affected by man in historic, and perhaps prehistoric, times.