Ephedra funerea

Coville & C.V. Morton 1935

Common names

Death Valley ephedra (Stevenson 1993), Death Valley jointfir (Jaeger 1969).

Taxonomic notes

Syn: Ephedra californica S. Watson var. funerea (Coville & C.V. Morton) L.D. Benson (Stevenson 1993). Type specimen "collected at Furnace Creek Canyon, on the Ryan-Shoshone road, Death Valley, Inyo County, California, altitude about 1,000 meters, April 26, 1932, by Frederick V. Coville and M. French Gilman" (Coville and Morton 1935). This would be near 36.34689, -116.65795.

Description

"Shrubs erect, 0.25-1.5 m. Bark gray, slightly cracked and irregularly fissured. Branches alternate or whorled, rigid, angle of divergence about 60 . Twigs gray-green, becoming gray with age, glaucous, slightly scabrous, with numerous very fine longitudinal grooves; internodes 2-6 cm. Terminal buds conic, 1-4 mm, apex acute. Leaves in whorls of 3, 2-6 mm, connate to 2/3-3/4 their length; bases splitting at margins, persistent, forming black, thickened collar; apex acute. Pollen cones 1-3 at node, narrowly ellipsoid, 5-8 mm, on very short, scaly peduncles (rarely sessile); bracts in 6-9 whorls of 3, light yellow, ovate, 3-4 × 2-3 mm, membranous, base short-clawed; bracteoles equaling bracts; sporangiophores 3-5 mm, exserted to 1/3 their length, with 3-7 sessile to short-stalked microsporangia. Seed cones 1-3 at node, lance-obovoid, 8-15 mm, on short, scaly peduncles (rarely sessile); bracts in 6-9 whorls of 3, obovate, 4-8 × 3-5 mm, papery, yellow-translucent with green-yellow center and base, base broadly clawed, margins slightly dentate. Seeds 1(-3), ellipsoid, 6-10 × 2-4 mm, pale green to light brown, smooth to scabrous. ... Coning March-April" (Stevenson 1993).

Stevenson (1993) provides this Key to the North American species of Ephedra.

Distribution and Ecology

USA: California & Nevada; Funeral Mountains area at 500-1500 m on sandy, dry soil and rocky scrub areas (Jaeger 1969, Stevenson 1993).

"[O]f conservation concern" (Stevenson 1993).

Remarkable Specimens

No data as of 2023.03.03.

Ethnobotany

Observations

See the observations on iNaturalist, accessed 2021.12.30.

Remarks

The epithet refers to the Funeral Mountains, which surround the type locality.

Citations

Coville, F. V. and C. V. Morton. 1935. Three new plants from Death Valley, California. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 25:307-311 (p. 307).

See also

Species profile at Plants of the World Online, accessed 2021.12.30.