Names
Scientific Name: Ephedra trifurca
Common Names: longleaf jointfir, longleaf ephedra, mexican tea, longleaf mormon tea
Characteristics
Duration: Perennial
Growth Habit: Shrub
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert, upland; dry, sunny flats and slopes in the desert and grasslands.
Flower Color: Non-flowering
Height: 3 to 6 feet
Description: The plants are dioecious. At the stem nodes, the male plants produce one or more reddish brown, egg-shaped pollen cones, while the female plants produce one or more reddish brown, flower-like seed cones with 6 to 9 whorls of circular, papery, translucent bracts in groups of three. The scale-like leaves grow in whorls of three at the stem nodes, will become dry, gray, and shredded with age, and can fall off. The stems are slender, rigid, jointed, initially glaucous yellow-green in color, and then aging to yellow and then gray. The base of the plant is woody.
Special Characteristics
Edible – The stems can be used to make tea and used as an herbal medicine, but the plants do not contain as much ephedrine – a stimulant, appetite suppressant, and decongestant – as some other members of this genus.
Classification
Order: Ephedrales
Family: Ephedraceae
