ephedra

ephedra, (genus Ephedra), genus of 65 species of gymnosperm shrubs of the family Ephedraceae. Ephedra is an evolutionally isolated group and is the only genus in the order Ephedrales (division Gnetophyta). Species are distributed in dry regions in both the Eastern and Western hemispheres. In the Western Hemisphere, Ephedra occurs in desert areas in the southwestern United States, in parts of Mexico, and in a wide area in South America.

Physical description

Members of the genus Ephedra are low, straggling, or climbing desert shrubs. The leaves, reduced to scales about one centimetre long, are opposite or whorled about the nodes of green branchlets. The bulk of photosynthesis occurs in the green stems. Reduction in leaf surface my be related to the necessity of reducing water loss through the process of transpiration, a requirement for existence in a desert environment. Some species may have both microstrobili (male cones) and megastrobili (female cones) on the same plant, though they more commonly occur on separate plants.

Major species and uses

Various Asian plants, particularly ma huang (Ephedra sinica), have been used as sources of the drug ephedrine. Ephedra has been a common herbal medicine in China for thousands of years, and several species are important in Ayurvedic medicine. Ephedrine is prescribed for colds, to break a fever and induce sweating, and as a decongestant and is now largely manufactured synthetically.

Britannica Quiz

Plants: From Cute to Carnivorous

The North American species include plants commonly known as joint firs and Mormon tea, including green Mormon tea (E. viridis), California joint fir (E. californica), Nevada joint fir (E. nevadensis), rough joint fir (E. aspera), and Torrey’s Mormon tea (E. torreyana). The plants have been used by indigenous peoples and were used by pioneers as sources of food and medicinals, and stem fragments of species in the southwestern United States and Mexico are used in a tealike preparation known variously as Mormon tea, Mexican tea, and desert tea.

The joint pine of the eastern Mediterranean region is E. fragilis.