Mormon Tea - Ephedra trifurca
South of Hillsboro, New Mexico
May 3, 2014
As we walked west of NM-27, south of Hillsboro, we came across “blooming” Mormon Tea. I took a few photos and came home ready to post a rather straight forward identification. Trying to determine if the plant was Ephedra trifurca or E. torreyana was not that straight forward. That problem in identification sent me on a wonderful little journey. Seems that Ephedra are cone bearing plants, they are in the Phylum Gentophyta. “The Gentophytes are vascular plants that appear to represent a stepping stone between gymnosperms and angiosperms...” (read Stephanie’s blog post on this for more information). As I furthered my research I was reminded that this is one of the plants, like so many desert species, in which photosynthesis occurs primarily in the stems - not the leaves - there being none. “Like flowering plants, they have a cuplike perianth, but like gymnosperms they have naked leaves.” They produce small cones which look like an odd fruit.
The common name, Mormon Tea, is self-explanatory as to origin. What might not be obvious is that the medical uses of Ephedra have been known for centuries - taken orally it can have a similar effect to that of injected adrenaline. The synthetic version of the Ephedra’s chemical base is called ephedrine and is a common treatment for allergies.
As for the identification - Southwest Colorado Wildflowers was very useful in eliminating E. torreyana as a candidate. Vascular Plants of the Gila, lists only E. trifurca. It is not apparent if the unlisted species are absent by commission or omission. Southwest Colorado Wildflowers has some nice close-ups of the stems of E. torreyana, however, and their blue-green color is diagnostic. The stems of the plant we found are a light green. So my identification is E. trifurca.
