Ephedra distachya Seeds | Joint Pine
LATIN NAME: Ephedra distachya
COMMON NAME: Joint Pine
Plant Profile
Ephedra distachya is a gymnosperm that looks like a horsetail, and it has no leaves worth the name. The stems are green, jointed and wiry, ribbed along their length, and they carry out the photosynthesis that the tiny, scale-like leaves cannot. The plant is a low, sprawling shrub to about fifty centimetres, with a woody base and stems that die back each year.
The species grows on dry steppes and in sandy ground from Spain to Siberia, often where nothing else will grow. The reproductive structures are small cones at the joints, yellow in spring, and the female cone ripens to a red, fleshy, berry-like structure that is eaten by birds. It is one of the oldest medicinal plants in the European and Asian record.
Science & Biotechnology
The stems contain ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, alkaloids that act on the sympathetic nervous system and open the airways. Ephedrine was isolated in the 1880s and became the basis of a drug still used for low blood pressure and for nasal congestion. The plant also contains tannins and a small amount of essential oil, and the alkaloid content varies widely with the species and the season.
The genus is gymnosperm, related to the conifers rather than to the flowering plants, and its jointed stems and reduced leaves are an adaptation to drought. The jointed stem is a chain of internodes with a sheath at each node, and the plant grows by extending the tip. It is one of the few gymnosperms with a fleshy fruit-like cone, which is dispersed by birds.
Uses & Benefits
Ephedra has been used for asthma, for hay fever and for low blood pressure, and it appears in Chinese medicine as ma huang, usually in a formula with other herbs. In the United States the sale of ephedra supplements was banned in 2004 after deaths and strokes were linked to high doses, and it remains a controlled or restricted substance in many countries.
The stems are also used for a tea in Central Asia and in the American south-west, where a related species is called Mormon tea. The tea is weak and the alkaloid content is low, but the plant should not be used as a stimulant or as a weight-loss aid, and it is not safe for people with heart disease, high blood pressure or thyroid problems.
Growing from Seed
Ephedra seed comes up unevenly and over a long window. Sow in a sandy mix at 20 degrees and keep it barely moist; germination can take two to three months, and the seedlings are delicate. The plant can also be raised from cuttings of young wood in summer, which root in sand under mist.
The plant wants full sun, sharp drainage and a lean, sandy soil, and it tolerates drought and cold to about minus twenty. It resents rich soil and wet ground, and it should be grown in a raised bed or in a gravel garden. Give it room to sprawl, since the stems flop outward rather than standing upright.
Our Take
A strange, ancient plant for a dry gravel bed, and a medicine that should be left to the pharmacy rather than the garden.
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