Vegetative Features of Ephedra:

 The vegetative plant body contains roots, stem and leaves and shows xerophytic characters
 Ephedra compact attains a height of about 30 cm and E. triandra, a lone tree species, reaches up
to several metres.
 Ephedra is a short-lived plant
 Ephedra contain prominent underground tap root system with many adventitious roots
 It contains many root hairs but there is no mycorrhiza.
 The stem is green, ribbed, profusely branched, hard and glabrous, and bears nodes and
intemodes.
 The stem, being green, performs the function of photosynthesis.
 The leaves are small, scaly and rudimentary
 Each leaf contains two un-branched, parallel veins.

 A bud, which forms the branch, is present in the axil of each leaf. True foliage leaves are absent
in Ephedra.

From: Department of Botany, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602

Vegetative part of Ephedra sp.

From: Narang, N. 1955. Contributions to the life history of Ephedra campylopoda. II.
Fertilization and embryogeny. Proceedings of the Indian Science Congress 3: 224.
Reproduction of Ephedra:
 Ephedra is dioecious, and the two sex organs are present on different plants
 An ovulate flower may be replaced by a staminal flower, and thus the strobilus becomes
bisporangiate
 In the bisporangiate strobili the male flowers are present in the lower region while the female
flowers at the top of the strobilus.

 Ephedra is heterosporous which is two types of spores (microspores in male flowers and
megaspores in the female flowers) are present.

 The male and female flowers are present in the form of cone-like, compound male and female
strobili, respectively.

 It is only at this stage that the distinction between the male and female plants can be made
because there is no well-marked morphological difference in the vegetative stage of the male
and female plants of Ephedra.

From: Department of Botany, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602

 Male and female reproductive organ:

From: Mousell, B. 1978. Double fertilization in the genus Ephedra. Phytomorphology 28: 336 – 345