Mature female cone (Wikimedia Commons, original source Yang and Wang 2013).
Ephedra strobilacea
No data as of 2022.12.31.
Two subspecies, the type and Ephedra strobilacea Bunge subsp. microbracteata (Ghahr.) Freitag & Maier-St. ex Browicz 1994 (syn. Ephedra microbracteata Ghahr. 1974).
The hybrid with E. intermedia is Ephedra × eleutherolepis V.A. Nikitin 1966, and has only been reported from Tajikistan.
Herbarium sheet of the type specimen at P.
Kakiuchi et al. (2011), in a study based on analysis of nrITS sequences, place E. strobilacea in a well-defined clade with E. sarcocarpa and E. transitoria, sister to a larger and more complex clade containing many Asian species. Rydin and Korall (2009), using a mix of plastid and nuclear loci, found a similar result but placed the clade sister to E. distachya, a very widespread Eurasian species.
Dioecious shrubs to 2 m tall, erect and profusely branched, with gray bark. Twigs to 4 mm diameter, often verticillate, grayish-green, smooth or somewhat scabrous, the upper branches opposite. Leaves in 2's or 3's, scalelike, herbaceous, acuminate, membranaceous at their attachment to the twig. Pollen cones in capitate inflorescences borne at the nodes of young branches, elliptic, to 5 mm long; flowers 4-8, paired or in whorls of 3; bracts broad, to 2 mm long, connate at base, short-pointed, the margin broadly membranous, erose; staminal column short, little exserted; anthers 5 or 6, on filaments to 1 mm long. Seed cones also borne at the nodes of young branches, spherical or ovoid, crowded in heads; bracts paired or in threes, in 5 or 6 whorls, free, rounded-obovate, herbaceous on the back, the margin broadly membranous, erose, ciliate; flowers in twos or threes, the straight tubillus to 3 mm long; fruit 6-7 mm long, with divaricate reflexed scales; seeds dark gray or greenish, 5-6 mm long, ovate or elliptic, slightly keeled on the back. Flowers in May; fruits in July (Bobrov 1968). I cannot locate a description of the subspecies differences. Differs from similar species in the dry female fruit and the relatively large stature of the plants.
Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan at elevations of 700-2500 m in desert areas on sandy slopes (Bell and Bachman 2011).
No data as of 2023.03.03.
No data as of 2022.12.31.
See the observations on iNaturalist, accessed 2022.12.30.
The epithet strobilacea means "ball", referring to the globose shape of the immature female cone.
Bell, A. and S. Bachman. 2011. Ephedra strobilacea. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2011. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/201682/9163984, accessed 2021.12.29.
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.
Browicz, K. 1994. Chorology of trees and shrubs in south-west Asia and adjacent regions, 10:15.
Bunge, A. A. von. 1852. Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Flora Russlands und der Steppen Central-Asiens, p.499. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2021.12.29.
Ghahreman, A. 1974. Deux nouvelles espèces d'Ephedra (Ephedraceae) d'Iran. Bulletin du Jardin botanique National de Belgique 44(1):23-28.
Kakiuchi, N., M. Mikage, S. Ickert-Bond, M. Maier-Stolte, and H. Freitag. 2011. A molecular phylogenetic study of the Ephedra distachya / E. sinica complex in Eurasia. Willdenowia 41(2):203–215, doi:10.3372/wi.41.41201.
Nikitin, V.A. 1966. Novosti Sist. Vyssh. Rast. 1966:5. [not online]
Rydin, C. and P. Korall. 2009. Evolutionary relationships in Ephedra (Gnetales), with implications for seed plant phylogeny. International Journal of Plant Sciences 170(8):1031–1043. doi:10.1086/605116.
Yang Y. and Wang Q. 2013. The earliest fleshy cone of Ephedra from the early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of northeast China. PLoS ONE 8(1):e53652. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0053652.
Species profile at Plants of the World Online, accessed 2021.12.29.
Last Modified 2023-10-09
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