Ephedra

Ephedra is a group of plants. It is the only one in its family, Ephedraceae. Ephedra species are found naturally in many places, like southwestern North America, southern Europe, northern Africa, southwest and central Asia, northern China and western South America.^[3]

Ephedra Temporal range: Early Cretaceous to recent, 121.4–0 Ma[1] PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Ephedra viridis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Division:	Gnetophyta
Class:	Gnetopsida
Order:	Ephedrales
Family:	Ephedraceae
Genus:	Ephedra L.[2]
Type species
Ephedra distachya L.
Global range of Ephedra
Synonyms[3]
Alloephedra Tao JR et Yang Y., 2003. Chaetocladus Nelson 1866 nom. illeg. Liaoxia Cao et S.Q. Wu, 1996

Ephedra species often grow in the temperate zone. They often grow on shores or sandy places where they get a lot of sunlight. In English, they are often called joint-pine, jointfir, Mormon-tea. In Chinese, it is called mahuang (simplified Chinese: 麻黄; traditional Chinese: 麻黃; pinyin: máhuáng; Wade–Giles: ma-huang; literally: "hemp yellow").^[4]

Some species, like Ephedra sinica, are used in medicine.^[5]