Stapf.
Description
Ephedra gerardiana var. sikkimensis is a high-alpine gymnosperm shrublet of the Himalaya and Tibetan plateau margins, recorded from China, Bhutan, India and Nepal, with the species complex widely held in cultivation across Europe and North America. It is a plant of dry, exposed, stony alpine slopes, gravel flats, moraine and rocky pasture in the arid trans-Himalayan and high-alpine zone, characteristically between about 3500 and 5000 m. The cited collections from Jule-Tso (4250 m) and Chele-La (4100 m) in Bhutan and Yume Samdong in Sikkim at 4700 m exemplify its occurrence at the very upper limits of vascular plant growth, on wind-swept, well-drained, frost-exposed ground.
The plant is a low, densely tufted, mat-forming or cushion shrublet with slender, jointed, longitudinally grooved green branchlets that perform photosynthesis, the true leaves reduced to small connate scales at the nodes. Like all Ephedra it is dioecious and non-flowering: pollen is borne in small ovoid male strobili, while the female cones, after fertilisation, develop fleshy red, berry-like seed cones enclosing one or two seeds, an adaptation to bird dispersal in an otherwise austere environment.
The epithet sikkimensis denotes the type region in the eastern Himalaya, var. sikkimensis being a high-elevation segregate of the polymorphic E. gerardiana. Members of this genus are notable sources of ephedrine alkaloids and have a long history of medicinal and ritual use. As pioneers of stabilised scree and moraine, these dwarf shrubs are ecologically important in fragile alpine systems; though not currently threatened, harvesting and climate-driven habitat shifts warrant monitoring.
Author: Stapf. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, A Monograph of the Genus Ephedra (Stapf)