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Ephedraceae Habit: Shrub; generally dioecious; taproot deep. Stem: erect, prostrate, occasionally climbing, jointed, much branched, green in youth; branchlets opposite or whorled, cylindric, longitudinally grooved; pith brown or white. Leaf: simple, 2 (each pair at right angles to adjacent pairs) or 3 per node, scale-like, +- fused at base into membranous sheath, generally ephemeral; resin canals 0. Cone: axillary (terminal), sessile or not, 1--many per node, ovoid or ellipsoid. Pollen Cone: bracts 2--3 per node, proximal sterile, distal subtending 2 basally fused bractlets subtending a stalk with 2--10(15) sessile to stalked, anther-like parts with 2 apical pores. Seed Cone: stalk 1--11(50) mm, generally straight, naked or with reduced basal bracts; distal bracts in (2)4--10 pairs or whorls, free or fused, brown or green, scarious or fleshy, subtending 2 fused leathery bractlets enclosing 1 ovule. Seed: 1--3(4) per cone (in ×-section, +- round if 1, +- semicircular if 2, +- triangular if 3, etc.), +- spheric to ellipsoid or lance-ovoid, beaked or not. Genera In Family: 1 genus, +- 50 species: arid, semi-arid (to tropical) regions of northern Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America. Jepson eFlora Author: Stefanie M. Ickert-Bond Reference: Ickert-Bond 2003 Ph.D. Dissertation Arizona State Univ Unabridged Reference: Cutler 1939 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 57:373--428; Ickert-Bond 2003. Systematics of New World Ephedra L. (Ephedraceae): Integrating morphological and molecular data. Ph.D. Dissertation, Arizona State Univ, Tempe, Arizona, 363 pp; Stapf, O. 1889. Die Arten der Gattung Ephedra. Denkschrift der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Klasse 56:1--112 Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti. Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Thuja plicata Next taxon: Ephedra |