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| ## green ephedra {#green-ephedra .Title-Header}                       |
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| *Ephedra viridis* Cov.                                                |
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| Plant Symbol = EPVI                                                   |
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##### *Contributed By: USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center & Tucson Plant Materials Center*

**Warning: Ephedra is considered toxic and should be used with
caution.**

#### Alternative Names![](media/image2.jpeg){width="2.21875in" height="4.594444444444444in"}

Mormon tea, jointfir

#### Use

*Ethnobotanic:* Green ephedra was traditionally used as a beverage and
medicine. Native Americans made flour and a coffee-like beverage from
the seeds. The Sierra Miwok and Owens Valley Paiute made an aromatic tea
from the slender twigs by boiling them. This plant is still highly
valued as a beverage today by many tribes and it is utilized as a tonic
and blood purifier. The twigs were mixed with the inner bark

of *Purshia tridentata* to make a tea for drinking by the Shoshone to
treat gonorrhea. The Hopi used the plant in the treatment of syphilis.
The Paiute and Shoshone also used a steeped tea made from the twigs as a
regulator for kidney or sometimes bladder disorders. Washoe women
imbibed a tea for delayed or difficult menstruation. The Kawaiisu of
California steeped a tea for backache. The Navaho of Arizona gathered
the twigs and leaves and boiled them with alum to produce a light-tan
color.

The vivid green foliage presents a striking contrast to an often-dull
gray desert environment. It has been widely planted as an ornamental.
This species is used in seed mixtures for re-vegetating depleted game
ranges in the mountain shrub and juniper-pinyon types and optionally in
the sagebrush type in Utah. Characteristics and qualities also are
suited for soil stabilization and highway and park beautification.

*Wildlife*: The mountain quail eats The seeds of Ephedra species and the
plant is browsed by deer, bison, and antelope.

#### Status

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural
Resources for this plant's current status, such as, state noxious status
and wetland indicator values.

#### Description

*General:* Ephedra Family (Ephedraceae). Green ephedra is a dioecious,
scraggly shrub rarely more than 60 cm to 150 cm high. The naked seeds
are the features, which places Ephedra with the classical group, the
gymnosperms. The microsporophylls are similar to the stamens of the
flowering plant; they also correspond with the spore-bearing scales in
the male cone of a pine tree (Benson and Darrow 1981).

The intricate network of brittle, practically leafless, bright green
branches is the salient feature of the plant. The leaves are scale-like,
2 to 3 mm long, the bases and middle portions conspicuously dark brown,
the rest light green and tending to be membranous, all but the bases
falling away with age. In the springtime, the male plant becomes a
conspicuous mass of yellow clusters of pollen sacs, and the green ovules
(later brown seeds) are an obvious but less conspicuous feature of the
female plant. At the Tucson PMC, green ephedra begins flowering in
mid-to late-April. The pollen cones are spheroidal and 3 to 4 mm in
diameter. The pollen sacs are relatively large, 0.5 mm long and 0.5 to
0.6 mm broad, and are practically lacking stalks. The ovulate cones have
stalks 2 to 10 mm long, ovoid, and 5 to 7 mm long. The cone scales are
in about 3 to 5 pairs, not membranous, and ovately shaped. They are
green at the middles, lighter colored and thinner toward the margins, 2
to 5 mm long, and not stalked. The seeds are more or less boat-shaped,
the flat \"deck\" of each facing the other member of the pair. They are
dark greenish lead color, 5 to 7 mm long, about 2 to 2.5 mm broad, and
not beaked (Benson and Darrow 1981).

At the onset of the flowering period, plants bearing ovules exert a
structure called a micropylar tube at the apex of the ovule. The
micropylar tube allows the ovule to produce and display a small droplet
from the exerted end of the tube. This droplet is called a pollination
droplet and it serves as a receptacle for airborne pollen (Pater 1991).

#### Distribution

Green ephedra occurs on rocky or sandy slopes and plains in such plant
communities as the lower California oak woodland, Joshua tree woodland,
the northern juniper-pinyon woodland, the sagebrush desert and higher
creosotebush deserts, and the desert grassland from 3,000 to 7,000 feet
(915-2135 m) elevation. Common associates include creosote bush (*Larrea
tridentata),* shadscale saltbush (*Atriplex confertifolia*), four wing
saltbrush (*A. canescens*), big sagebrush (*Artemisia tridentata*),
galleta (*Hilaria jamesii*), sand dropseed (*Sporobolus cryptandrus*),
Utah serviceberry (*Amelanchier utahensis*), junipers (*Juniperus
spp*.), and pinyons (*Pinus spp*.).

The plant occurs naturally in Arizona deserts from the northern Mohave
to Apache and northern Yavapai Counties at elevations of 3,000 to 7,000
feet (915-2135 m) (Benson and Darrow 1981). In California, the plant is
found east of the Sierra Nevada from Lassen County southward to the
mountains of Inyo County, and westward through the mountains of Kern
County to eastern Ventura County, and thence southeastward to the
mountains of southern San Bernardino county and the Western edge of the
Colorado desert. Green ephedra extends into southwestern Wyoming,
northern and central Nevada, southward to the Charleston Mountains,
Clark County, Utah, except the northernmost part, and western Colorado
(Benson and Darrow 1981).

For current distribution, please consult the Plant Profile page for this
species on the PLANTS Web site.

#### Establishment

*Adaptation*: Green ephedra is tolerant of calcareous, weakly saline,
and slightly saline-alkaline (sodic) sites and it is sometimes found
growing in clayey soils. It thrives in dry, well-drained sites and it is
intolerant of wet sites and poor drainage. The plant is
drought-resistant, markedly so after initial seedling establishment.
Local plant materials are winter-hardy. Distant southern or lower
altitude seed sources may be frost-sensitive, especially in the seedling
stage. Ephedra sites are not commonly burned due to sparse,
discontinuous fuels but some plants survive wildfire and spread by
roots. Green ephedra is more vigorous in full sunlight but it also grows
in partial shade of open woodlands. Plants are weakly competitive due to
slow growth rate compatible with other shrubs and herbs, but more so
after seedlings are firmly established (Pater 1991).

*General*: Harvest the seeds by knocking them from the shrubs into
containers or onto a dry, clean canvas using an office clipper seed
separator. A Shop-Vac vacuum cleaner also has potential as a harvesting
tool. Seed quality is not standardized. There is 90% purity, about 60%
germination, 54% Pure Live Seed (PLS), and an estimated 25,000 seeds per
pound (Pater 1991).

*Propogration by seed*: Plant seed 1 to 2 cm deep; preferably by
drilling in a well prepared, firm seedbed. Always mix the seeds with
other species when re-vegetating game ranges to help control weeds and
counterbalance slow rates of growth and establishment. One-half to one
pound per acre of seed is used in 17 to 19 and 28 to 30 pounds per acre
total seed mixes when drilling and broadcasting, respectively. Seeding
can be sown by airplane on disked or plowed lands or such seeded areas
can be anchor-chained when no site preparation proceeds seeding. Plant
before the growing season with soil moisture most dependably adequate
for good germination and seedling establishment. Seedings are made in
late fall, early winter, or spring in intermountain areas (Pater 1991).

About half of the seed will germinate in 5 to 12 days, and most
germination is completed in 14 days in lab tests. Alternating 59 degree
F to 87 degrees F (15.0-30.5 degrees C) day and 36 degrees F to 41
degrees F (2.2-5.0 degrees C) night temperatures are optimal for
germinating seed. Constant 55 degrees F (12.7 degrees C) also gave good
germination. Germination may be improved by an after ripening period.
Results from Utah game range revegetation evaluations suggest seedling
vigor and growth rate are rather weak; plants take five to ten years to
attain two foot heights. Germination was reduced in -4 to -16 bars
osmotic potential solutions; optimum was 0 to -4 bars (Pater 1991).

#### Management

Reduce plant competition and animal populations, if not already at low
levels or excluded, during stand establishment, and balance animal
populations with long term conservative usable herbage supply (Pater
1991).

#### Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

EPVI is somewhat available through native plant seed companies. Seeds
and plants of selected *Ephedra* cultivars are available from many
nurseries. It is best to plant species from your local area, adapted to
the specific site conditions where the plants are to be grown.

Contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly Soil
Conservation Service) office for more information. Look in the phone
book under "United States Government." The Natural Resources
Conservation Service will be listed under the subheading "Department of
Agriculture."

#### References

Benson & Darrow 1981. *Trees and shrubs of the southwestern deserts*.
The University of Arizona Press, Tucson, Arizona.

Curtin, L.S.M. 1984. *By the prophet of the earth ethnobotany of the
Pima*. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, Arizona.

Kearney, T.H. & R.H. Peebles 1960. *Arizona flora*. University of
California Press, Berkeley, California.

Martin, A.C., H.S. Zim, & A.L. Nelson 1951. *American wildlife and
plants: A guide to wildlife food habits*. Dover Publications, New York,
New York.

Pater, M. 1991. *Documentation of a plant accession selected for
advanced testing*. USDA, NRCS, Tucson Plant Materials Center, Arizona

Reagan, A.B 1929. *Plants used by the White Mountain Apache Indians of
Arizona.* Wisconsin Archeologist 8(4):143-160.

Strike, S.S. & E.D. Roeder 1994. *Ethnobotany of the California Indians.
Volume 2*. *Aboriginal uses of* *California's indigenous plants*. Koeltz
Scientific Books, Champaign.

Train, P., J.R. Henrichs, & W.A. Archer 1941. *Contributions toward a
flora of Nevada, No. 33*. Medicinal uses of plants by Indian Tribes of
Nevada. USDA, The Division of Plant Exploration and Introduction, Bureau
of Plant Industry. Washington, D.C.

USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service 1999. *Range site
descriptions, D30-1-D41-3*. Arizona State Office, Phoenix, Arizona.

Whiting, A.F. 1966. *Ethnobotany of the Hopi*. Museum of Northern
Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona..

Wyman, L.C. & S.K. Harris 1951. *The ethnobotany of the Kayenta Navaho*.
University of New Mexico Publications in Biology 5. University of New
Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Zigmond, M.L. 1981. *Kawaiisu ethnobotany*. University of Utah Press,
Salt Lake City, Utah.

#### Prepared By

##### *M. Kat Anderson*

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center

*Mark Pater*

USDA, NRCS Tucson Plant Materials Center, Tucson, Arizona

#### Species Coordinator

##### *M. Kat Anderson*

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center

c/o Department of Environmental Horticulture, University of California,
Davis, California

Edited 05dec00 jsp; 19may03 ahv; 05jun06 jsp

For more information about this and other plants, please contact your
local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS
Web site\<[http://plants.usda.gov](http://plants.usda.gov/)\> or the
Plant Materials Program Web site
\<[http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov](http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov/)\>

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