Table of Contents
- 1 What color is Ephedra?
- 2 What does the plant Ephedra look like?
- 3 Where can I find an Ephedra plant?
- 4 What are the Angiospermic characters in Ephedra?
- 5 How do I identify an Ephedra plant?
- 6 What is Brigham tea used for?
- 7 What is the common name of Ephedra?
- 8 How do I identify an ephedra plant?
- 9 What kind of plant has the name Ephedra?
- 10 What are the male cones of an ephedra?
- 11 What can ephedra alkaloids do to your body?
What color is Ephedra?
Ephedra plants are erect, branching shrubs found in desert or arid regions throughout the world. The 1.5–4 ft shrubs typically grow on dry, rocky, or sandy slopes. The many slender, yellow-green branches of ephedra have two very small leaf scales at each node.
What does the plant Ephedra look like?
The family Ephedraceae, of which Ephedra is the only genus, are gymnosperms, and generally shrubs, sometimes clambering vines, and rarely, small trees. Members of the genus frequently spread by the use of rhizomes. The stems are green and photosynthetic. The leaves are opposite or whorled.
How do I know if I have ephedra Nevadensis?
shrub with yellowish-gray, erect-spreading branches. Small, paired leaves split and fall off early leaving a leafless, broom-like shrub. Tiny, individual, yellow to light-brown flowers cluster together to form a cone-like inflorescence.
Where can I find an Ephedra plant?
There are 40 known ephedra species distributed among the arid and semiarid regions of Asia, Europe, northern Africa, western North America, and South America. They can grow from sea level up to 5,000 meters high in the Himalayan and Andes mountains.
What are the Angiospermic characters in Ephedra?
Xylem consists of tracheids, vessels and xylem parenchyma. Due to the presence of the vessels the Ephedra resembles angiosperms. The phloem consists of sieve cells, phloem parenchyma and albuminous cells.
How do I know if I have Ephedra?
Physical description. Members of the genus Ephedra are low, straggling, or climbing desert shrubs. The leaves, reduced to scales about one centimetre long, are opposite or whorled about the nodes of green branchlets. The bulk of photosynthesis occurs in the green stems.
How do I identify an Ephedra plant?
Ephedra is a most unusual and thus easily remembered shrub and it is very common in semi-desert sand, rock, mesas, and canyons. Leaves are reduced to tiny dark scales; the number of leaves (and bracts) grouped together is key in identifying the various species: E. torreyana has leaves and bracts grouped in threes; E.
What is Brigham tea used for?
As a medicine, people take Mormon tea for sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea. It is also used for colds, kidney disorders, and as a “spring” tonic.
How do you make Ephedra Sinica tea?
dried ephedra (stems), 8 ounces boiling water Pour water over the tea and allow to steep for 5- 10 minutes. Many find the taste unpleasant. Sweetening with honey or sugar is an option. Some recipes recommend adding milk to moderate the taste.
What is the common name of Ephedra?
Mormon tea
Integrated Taxonomic Information System – Report
Common Name(s): | Mormon tea [English] |
ephedra [English] | |
jointfir [English] | |
Taxonomic Status: | |
Current Standing: | accepted |
How do I identify an ephedra plant?
What is the common name of ephedra?
What kind of plant has the name Ephedra?
Ephedra is the origin of the name of the stimulant ephedrine, which the plants contain in significant concentrations. The family Ephedraceae, of which Ephedra is the only genus, are gymnosperms, and generally shrubs, sometimes clambering vines, and rarely, small trees.
What are the male cones of an ephedra?
The Ephedras are leafless desert shrubs with jointed, green stems forming in whorls at nodes along the stalk. Unlike other naked seeds, the Ephedras lack resin canals. The male cones have 2 to 8 anthers.
How are Ephedra and pseudoephedrine used in medicine?
The Ephedra alkaloids, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine – constituents of E. sinica and other members of the genus – have sympathomimetic and decongestant qualities, and have been used as dietary supplements, mainly for weight loss. The drug, ephedrine, is used to prevent low blood pressure during spinal anesthesia.
What can ephedra alkaloids do to your body?
Alkaloids obtained from the species of Ephedra used in herbal medicines, which are used to synthetically prepare pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, can cause cardiovascular events. These events have been associated with arrhythmias, palpitations, tachycardia and myocardial infarction.