Ephedra alataDecne.

WFO wfo-0000794281 Accepted WFO 2026-06 4 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–d · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Ephedra alata, photographed by Denys Vynokurov
fig. a Denys Vynokurov, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-12-27 / obs. 108377836
Ephedra alata, photographed by Denys Vynokurov
fig. b Denys Vynokurov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 108377846
Ephedra alata, photographed by Denys Vynokurov
fig. c Denys Vynokurov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 108377858
Ephedra alata, photographed by Denys Vynokurov
fig. d Denys Vynokurov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 108377870

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 14 botanical countries

Regions where Ephedra alata is native: Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, Western Sahara, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sinai AlgeriaChadEgyptLibyaMaliMauritaniaMoroccoTunisiaWestern SaharaIraqLebanon-SyriaPalestineSaudi ArabiaSinai
Native distribution of Ephedra alata, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Chad CHA
Egypt EGY
Libya LBY
Mali MLI
Mauritania MTN
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN
Western Sahara WSA
Iraq IRQ ASIA-TEMPERATE
Lebanon-Syria LBS
Palestine PAL
Saudi Arabia SAU
Sinai SIN

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 4 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Ephedra alata var. alenda Stapf
  • Ephedra alata var. decaisnei Stapf
  • Ephedra alenda (Stapf) Andr.
  • Ephedra altissima Bové

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.