Ephedra distachyaL.

Sea Grapejoinjointfir

WFO wfo-0000794343 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Ephedra distachya, photographed by Svyatoslav Knyazev
fig. a Svyatoslav Knyazev, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-14 / obs. 197694719
Ephedra distachya, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. b Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 196458119
Ephedra distachya, photographed by Valentin Kosterin
fig. c Valentin Kosterin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 195538742
Ephedra distachya, photographed by Oleg Kosterin
fig. d Oleg Kosterin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194744738
Ephedra distachya, photographed by Galyna Mykytynets
fig. e Galyna Mykytynets, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 179139620
Ephedra distachya, photographed by Galyna Mykytynets
fig. f Galyna Mykytynets, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 179139700
Ephedra distachya, photographed by Galyna Mykytynets
fig. g Galyna Mykytynets, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 179139196
Ephedra distachya, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. h Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 165132611

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 32 botanical countries

Regions where Ephedra distachya is native: Altay, Inner Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Primorye, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AltayInner MongoliaKazakhstanLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusPrimoryeTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanWest SiberiaXinjiangAlbaniaAustriaBulgariaCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaFranceGreeceHungaryItalyKrymNW. Balkan Pen.RomaniaSiciliaSouth European RussiaSpainSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine Sardegna
Native distribution of Ephedra distachya, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
East European Russia RUE
France FRA
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Inner Mongolia CHI
Kazakhstan KAZ
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Primorye PRM
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX

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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,982 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -16.4 °C -4.3 °C 5.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.8 °C 26.5 °C 30.7 °C
Annual rainfall 279 mm 523 mm 856 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 47 mm 97 mm 155 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,982 research-grade observations of Ephedra distachya that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 33 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.

  • Chaetocladus distachys (L.) J.Nelson
  • Ephedra arborea Lag. ex Bertol.
  • Ephedra botryoides Fisch. & C.A.Mey.
  • Ephedra clusii Dufour
  • Ephedra distachya f. caspia Fomin
  • Ephedra distachya f. circinnata Stapf
  • Ephedra distachya subsp. monostachya (L.) Riedl
  • Ephedra distachya subvar. linnaei Stapf
  • Ephedra distachya subvar. monostachya (L.) Stapf
  • Ephedra distachya var. caspia (Fomin) Grossh.
  • Ephedra distachya var. media (C.A.Mey.) Stapf
  • Ephedra dubia Regel
  • Ephedra equisetiformis subsp. distachya (L.) Bonnier & Layens
  • Ephedra helvetica C.A.Mey.
  • Ephedra helvetica f. gracilis G.Negri
  • Ephedra linnaei Stapf ex Koehne
  • Ephedra macrocephala Bertol.
  • Ephedra maritima St.-Lag.
  • Ephedra media C.A.Mey.
  • Ephedra minor Host
  • Ephedra monostachya L.
  • Ephedra negrii Nouviant
  • Ephedra podostylax Boiss.
  • Ephedra polygonoides Pall.

and 9 more.

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. 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.