Ephedraceae: Plants of the Ephedra Family. Pictures and help with wildflower Identification from Thomas J. Elpel, author of Botany in a Day. The easy way to identify flowers.

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Ephedraceae
Plants of the Ephedra Family

The Ephedras produce naked seeds like the pines, but they form on a colored, cup-like structure called a perianth. Thus it superficially appears that these plants are an evolutionary link between the conifers and the true flowering plants. However, these are a recently evolved class of plants, and the fossil record indicates that the flowering plants developed before them.

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. The female cones have bracts covering the two maturing seeds. Worldwide there is 1 genus and 40 species.

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Ephedra viridis. Mormon Tea.	Ephedra viridis. Mormon Tea. Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah.
Ephedra spp. Mormon Tea.	Ephedra spp. Mormon Tea. Near Portal, Arizona.