Ephedra major Seeds | Major Joint Pine

Small, yellow-brown Major Joint Pine seeds in dry papery cones, on a plain background — Major Joint Pine (*Ephedra major*): Ephedraceae, native to dry stony slopes from the Mediterranean through Turkey to Central Asia.

LATIN NAME: Ephedra major

COMMON NAME: Major Joint Pine

Plant Profile

Major Joint Pine is the largest of the European ephedras, a shrub that climbs rather than stands, throwing long, grey-green stems up through other shrubs to two or three metres. The joints are rough to the touch, the scale leaves are papery and soon shed, and the cones are small and yellow, ripening in summer on female plants.

Its range runs from the Mediterranean coast and the Iberian interior through Italy and the Balkans to Turkey, the Caucasus and Central Asia, always on dry, stony slopes and in open scrub. It is a plant of hot, exposed places and will grow where little else will.

Science & Biotechnology

The species has been screened repeatedly for alkaloids because of its size and its closeness to the medicinal ephedras. Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine have been reported from some populations, though at concentrations far below those of Ephedra sinica, and the results vary enough between studies that the plant should be treated as potentially toxic rather than as a source.

Ephedra is one of the three living genera of the gnetophytes, a lineage that separated from other seed plants very early, and its jointed stems and double fertilisation have made it a model in studies of plant evolution. Major Joint Pine, with its long, scandent stems, is often used in comparative work on stem anatomy within the genus. Its pollen cones are among the largest in the genus, and their arrangement has been used to separate the Mediterranean species.

Uses & Benefits

Its garden value is as a drought-proof climber for a hot wall or a bank, where its grey-green ropes of stem can drape over rocks and through other shrubs. It is salt- and wind-tolerant and needs no irrigation once established, which makes it useful in coastal and low-water planting.

Like the other ephedras it is not a kitchen or household herb. The alkaloids in its stems are the reason the genus is regulated in many countries, and any medicinal use belongs in professional hands. It can be trained through a shrub or over a low wall, and its grey stems read well against stone.

Growing from Seed

Soak the seed for 24 hours, then sow it five millimetres deep in a gritty mix and keep it at 20 °C. Germination is slow and uneven; a spell of cold after sowing can improve the result, and seedlings may continue to appear over two months.

Grow the seedlings in deep pots, because the taproot develops quickly, and plant out before it starts to coil. Full sun, sharp drainage and a poor soil suit it; rich ground produces soft growth that winter kills. Once established, the plant needs no water and only occasional tidying of wayward stems. Seedlings in a frame are best left in the same pot until planting, because root disturbance sets them back a season.

Our Take

A tall, scrambling ephedra that gives a dry garden height without water. Slow from seed, then permanent, and best treated as scenery rather than as medicine.

Herb Seeds