Ephedra chilensis
Jointfir, pinco-pinco (or pingo-pingo).
Synonymy:
Dioecious subshrubs or shrubs to 1.5 m tall. Rhizomatous. Young branches upright. Leaves (2.5-)3-9(-12) mm, decussate. Pollen cones globose or ovoid, simple or branched, sessile or pedunculate, terminal or axillary; bracts decussate, fused for up to 1/2 of their length. Pollen cones fleshy when ripe, globose, pink or red. Seeds 2, covered by the upper pair of bracts (Martínez Carretero 2018).
Martínez Carretero (2018) also gives a key to the six Argentine species of Ephedra.
Argentina: Mendoza, Neuquén; Chile: Maule, Valparaíso, Antofagasta, Santiago; perhaps Bolivia; at elevations of 300-3850 m in shrubland, rocky areas, and desert (Bell and Bachman 2011). The distribution is primarily in Chile.
Note that since the IUCN (assessment by Bell and Bachman 2011) treats E. gracilis as a synonym of E. chilensis, conservation assessments and range data for the two taxa are conflated. E. gracilis has a smaller distribution that falls within the Chilean range of E. chilensis.
No data as of 2023.03.03.
The epithet means "of Chile".
Bell, A. and S. Bachman. 2011. Ephedra chilensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2011. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/201695/9167159, accessed 2021.12.27.
Huxley, A. 1992. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. MacMillan Press (as E. americana var. andina).
Martínez Carretero, Eduardo. 2018. Ephedraceae Dumort. in Flora de Mendoza, Multequina 27: Fascículo 10, FM 1-9. Available: https://www.redalyc.org/jatsRepo/428/42857911008/42857911008.pdf, accessed 2021.12.26.
Presl, Karl B. 1843. Botanische Bemerkungen. Abh. Königl. Böhm. Ges. Wiss., ser. 5, 3: 539. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2021.12.27.
Species profile at Plants of the World Online, accessed 2021.12.27.
Last Modified 2023-03-03