Ephedra distachya

Linnaeus 1753

Common names

Csikófark (Hungarian); Meerträubel (German); Efedra dvukhkoloskovaya (Russian); Deniz usumu (Turkish); Efedra dvykhkoloskova (Ukrainian) (Dyatlov and Vasilieva [no date]), 双穗麻黄 shuang sui ma huang (Chinese) (Fu et al. 1999).

Taxonomic notes

This is the type species of Ephedra. There are two subspecies, the type and Ephedra distachya subsp. helvetica (C.A. Mey.) Asch. & Graebn.

Syn. for the type: Ephedra dubia Regel; Ephedra arborea Lag. ex Bertol.; Ephedra botryoides Fisch. & C.A. Mey.; Ephedra minor Host; Ephedra clusii Dufour; Ephedra linnaei Stapf ex Koehne; Ephedra macrocephala Bertol.; Ephedra maritima St.-Lag.; Ephedra monostachya L.; Ephedra podostylax Boiss.; Ephedra polygonoides Pall.; Ephedra vulgaris Rich.; Ephedra vulgaris var. subtristachya C.A. Mey.

Syn. for subsp. helvetica: Ephedra helvetica C.A. Mey.; Ephedra negrii Nouviant; Ephedra rigida St.-Lag.

Description

Shrubs up to 25(-100) cm tall, sometimes prostrate, shoots partly subterreanean. Branchlets gray-green or more rarely yellow-green, apex often curved or twisted, internodes 1.5-5 cm long, up to 2 mm across. Leaves opposite, connate for 1/3-2/3 their length, free part triangular, apex obtuse or subacute. Pollen cones solitary or in clusters of 3 at apex of short branchlets, often pedunculate; bracts in 4 pairs; staminal column ca. 2 mm, exserted, with 7 or 8 sessile or shortly stipitate anthers. Seed cones terminal in short branchlets or axillary, narrowly ovoid; bracts in 3 or 4 pairs, with narrow, membranous margins, apical pair connate for ca. 1/3 their length, red and fleshy at maturity; integument tube 1-1.5 mm, straight. Fruit globose, 6-7 mm across, red. Seeds usually 2, dark brown, glossy, ovoid, 4-5 × 2-3 mm, smooth. Pollination May-Jun, seed maturity Jul. 2n = ?24, 28, ?36 (Vidakovic 1991, Fu et al. 1999). Note that this description may not be fully accurate for subsp. helvetica, which I have not yet found described. See also the description in Bobrov (1968).

Distribution and Ecology

Albania; Austria; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bulgaria; Croatia; Czechia; France; Georgia; Greece; Hungary; Iran; Italy; Kazakhstan; Montenegro; Romania; Russia: Altay, W Siberia, E European Russia, S European Russia, Krasnoyarsk); San Marino; Serbia; Slovakia; Slovenia; Spain; Switzerland; Turkey; Turkmenistan; Ukraine; possibly China: Xinjiang (Bell and Bachman 2011). Generally on stony or sandy soils, or grassy places, at 100-900 m elevation (Dyatlov and Vasilieva [no date], Fu et al. 1999); Zone 5. Note that this information may not be fully accurate for subsp. helvetica, which I have not yet found described.

Remarkable Specimens

No data as of 2023.03.03.

Ethnobotany

Observations

See the observations on iNaturalist, accessed 2021.12.29.

Remarks

The epithet distachya is Latin for "having 2 spikes".

"At university we were taught not to underestimate the botanical knowledge of the general public. The rediscovery of Ephedra distachya was cited as an example. ... Shortly before World War II it was discovered growing on sand dunes in southern Slovakia. During the war Slovakia separated from what was left of Czechoslovakia, and the man who had published the article about this find died in a concentration camp. After the war a group of university botanists from Prague went to check the locality. They wandered around looking for what was described as 'sand dunes near Chenek's Sawmill' and lost their way. Finally they met a man on a bicycle, obviously a worker from a nearby gravel pit. The Prague scientists flagged him down and asked for directions to Chenek's Sawmill. The man looked at them and said: "Are you looking for Ephedra distachya?" It was he who had first noticed the strange shrub and brought it to the attention of his school teacher, who in turn had contacted professional botanists" (Martin 2003).

Citations

Bell, A. & Bachman, S. 2011. Ephedra distachya. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2011: e.T201680A9163275. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2011-2.RLTS.T201680A9163275.en, accessed 2021.12.26.

Bobrov, E. G. 1968. Ephedraceae, pp. 154-160 in V.L. Komarov (ed.), Flora of the USSR, Vol. 1, trans. by the Israel Program for Scientific Translations. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution and National Science Foundation. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2021.12.29.

Linnaeus, C. 1753. Species Plantarum 2: 1040. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2021.12.26.

Martin, Malcolm. 2003.04.26. Ernie McNaughton - Nonagenerian. Botanical Electronic News No. 309. http://mpb.ou.edu/ben/ben309.html, accessed 2021.12.26.

Stöber, Kurt. 1999. Images from Thomé, Flora von Deutschland etc. http://www.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/~stueber/thome/index.html, accessed 2003.05.01, now defunct.

See also

Photo, description, and chemical structure of Ephedrine (in German) [accessed 2021.12.26].

More good photos and text (in Hungarian) [accessed 2021.12.26].

Species profile at Plants of the World Online, accessed 2021.12.29.

Baranec, T., V. Rehorek, et al. 1994. Generative reproduction of ephedra (Ephedra distachya L.) in Slovakia. Biologia Bratislava 49(1):65-67.

Bezus, K.L.G. 1999. Distribution of Ephedra distachya L. (Ephedraceae Wettst.) during Late Glacial and Holocene on the territory of Ukraine (by palynological data). Ukrayins'kyi Botanichnyi Zhurnal 56(3):300-304.

Borisova, I.V. 1995. Some biomorphological peculiarities of Ephedra distachya L. in the Central Kazakhstan low hill land. Rastitel'nye Resursy 31(3):73-81.

Diamantoglou, S., S. Rhizopoulou, et al. 1989. Seasonal trends in energy content and storage substances in the Mediterranean shrub Ephedra. Acta Oecologica Oecologia Plantarum 10(3):263-274.

Kajimura, K., Y. Iwamoto, et al. 1994. Variation of growth and contents in ephedrine type alkaloids in Ephedra distachya. Natural Medicines 48(2):122-125.

Takhtajan, Ac.A. (ed.). 1981. Rare and vanishing plants of the USSR. Leningrad. 264 p.