Ephedra foliata description - The Gymnosperm Database

Ephedra foliata

Boiss. ex C.A. Meyer 1846

Common names

Taxonomic notes

Syn.: Ephedra aitchisonii (Stapf) V.A. Nikitin; Ephedra alte C.A. Mey.; Ephedra alte Brandis; Ephedra asparagoides Griff.; Ephedra peduncularis Boiss.; Ephedra polylepis Boiss. & Hausskn.; Ephedra rollandii Maire; Ephedra ciliata Fisch. & C.A. Mey.; Ephedra ciliata Aitch.; Ephedra kokanica Regel. The type material of E. alte was found to be a mixture of male E. aphylla and female E. foliata Boiss. ex C. Meyer.

See the Taxonomic notes for E. laristanica, which is likely also synonymous with E. foliata.

Description

"Scandent or trailing plant. Branches slender. Leaves 2-4 at the upper nodes, 0.8-3.0 × 0.1 cm, linear. Male strobili solitary or 2-3 per node; flowers 4-6 pairs, bracteate; bracts connate, obtuse; anthers 3-4, sessile. Female strobili pedunculate, ovoid, 2-3-flowered. Tubillus c. 1.5 mm long, straight. Berry globose, white. Seeds 2, brownish-black." Flowers from February to March (Ali and Qaiser 1987, for E. ciliata). See also the description in Bobrov (1968) for E. ciliata.

See Ephedra aphylla for a key to the four Ephedra species of the Sinai.

Distribution and Ecology

Central Asia, including Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan; fairly common throughout at elevations of 700-2300 m (Ali and Qaiser 1987, for E. ciliata).

Remarkable Specimens

No data as of 2023.03.03.

Ethnobotany

Observations

See the observations on iNaturalist, accessed 2021.12.30.

Remarks

Citations

Ali, S.I. and M. Qaiser (eds.). 1987. Flora of Pakistan. http://www.efloras.org.

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 2021.12.30.

Meyer, C. A. 1846. Versuch einer Monographie der Gattung Ephedra, Durch Abbildungen Erlautert. Mémoires de l'Académie impériale des sciences de St.-Pétersbourg, Sér. 6, Sci. Math., Seconde Pt. Sci. Nat. 5:107. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2021.12.26.