Schrenk & C.A.Mey.
Description
Ephedra intermedia Schrenk & C.A.Mey. is a gymnospermous, ephedroid shrub of the Ephedraceae, widely distributed across the arid mountains and steppes of Central Asia, ranging from China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan through Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan to the dry trans-Himalayan valleys of India and Nepal (GBIF: c. 1,587 occurrences). It is a xerophyte of stony slopes, dry riverbeds, gravelly steppe and arid montane scrub. The photographed plant from Churta-Khola in west Nepal at about 3,800 m, recorded in June, illustrates its occurrence in the high, dry inner-Himalayan rain-shadow zone.
The plant is a densely branched, erect to spreading shrub up to about 1 m tall, with rigid, jointed, longitudinally grooved green stems that carry out photosynthesis; the leaves are reduced to small membranous scales fused into sheaths at the nodes. As a gnetophyte it is non-flowering: the reproductive structures are unisexual cones, the plants generally dioecious. Male cones are clustered with stamens bearing pollen sacs, while the female cones, after fertilisation, develop fleshy red bracts surrounding the ovule, forming a berry-like, fleshy false fruit that is bird-dispersed.
Ephedra is the sole genus of Ephedraceae and one of three living genera of the Gnetales, of considerable interest in seed-plant phylogeny. Species of the genus, including E. intermedia, are a traditional source of the alkaloid ephedrine and have a long history of medicinal use ("ma huang"). The species is widespread and of least conservation concern, though it is locally harvested.
Author: Schrenk & C.A.Mey. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Nepal, GBIF, Freitag & Maier-Stolte: Ephedraceae monograph