The Ephedraceae

The Mormon Tea or Joint Fir Family

Female parts of mormon-tea (Ephedra sp.)	Male parts of mormon-tea (Ephedra sp.)

The Ephedraceae are distributed in temperate to arid regions worldwide except in Australia. Often found in dry sunny habitats up to 4000m in elevation. The family contains about 1 genus and 35-45 species. The plants are mostly shrubs. Ephedra belongs to the gnetophyte family.

Click here for a distribution map of the Ephedraceae in the U.S.A.

Vegetative Characters | Reproductive Characters | Diagnostic Characters | Economic Importance/Fun Facts | Evolutionary Adaptations and Relationships | Glossary of Terms | References and Links | Pictures

Vegetative Characters

• usually branching shrubs, or sometimes climbing vines or small trees
• often spread by rhizome
• leaves opposite or in whorls of 3
• leaves simple, scale-like, connate at base forming sheath
• bark gray to red brown, cracked and fissured

Reproductive Characters

• most dioecious, rarely monoecious, occasionally bisexual inflorescence or hermaphrodite flowers
• seed cones in whorls at nodes of twigs
• seed cones composed of 2-10 bracts with 1 axillary cone enclosing an ovule
• pollen cones are found in groups of 1-10 and are whorled
• pollen cone have 2 opposite scales enclosing 1-3 microsporangiophores
• seeds solitary or in groups of two
• pollen furrowed not winged
• usually wind pollinated, sometimes by insects or birds
• flower-like reproductive parts

Diagnostic Characters

• small cones
• superficially resemble equisetophytes
• prolate shaped pollen with 6-18 furrows
• flower-like reproductive structures

Economic Importance/Fun Facts

• used for medicinal purposes since antiquity-cough and circulatory problems
• contains the alkaloid ephedrine used as a vessel constrictant
• also contain tannins and other alkaloids

Evolutionary Adaptations and Relationships

• probably originated in the Triassic or Jurassic period
• monophyletic
• gnetophytes are purposed to be the sister group to pinaceae
• several possible synapomorphies-flowerlike structures in a compound stobili, enveloping bracts around ovules and microsporangia and production of pollination droplet

Glossary of Terms

• bract- in conifers a modified scalelike leaf of a pine cone
• dioecious male and female organs on different plants
• synapomorphy- characteristics shared by two or more taxa that are variable in the group of interest

References and Links

• Little, John R. and C. Eugene Jones, 1980. A Dictionary of Botany. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, NY U.S.A.
• Judd et al., 1999. Plant Systematics: a phylogenetic approach. Sinauer Associates, Inc. Sunderland, MA U.S.A.
• Kubitzki, K. 1990. The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Springer-Verlag. Berlin, Germany.
• Stevenson, Dennis Wm, 1993. Flora of North America: North of Mexico vol. 2, 6.Ephedraceae Dumortier. Oxford University Press, Inc. New York, NY U.S.A.

Pictures

Ephedra torreyanaspp.notice grooving on pollen grain	Illustration of Ephedra

Ephedraspp.	Ephedraspp.-notice rhizomes

For questions or feedback, contact: Catharine Calandra