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Ephedra cutleri
Also called Cutler Morning-tea, Navajo Ephedra, Three-forked Ephedra, Cutler's Ephedra, Cutler's Mormon Tea
Cutler's jointfir is a rhizomatous desert shrub native to the southwestern United States, forming clumps on dry sandy ground. It thrives in hot, arid conditions with very little water and is best left to natural, well-drained desert soils.
Ephedra cutleri, the Navajo ephedra or Cutler's jointfir, is a species of Ephedra that is native to the Southwestern United States (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming).
In one study, E. cutleri was the major plant found in Northeastern Arizona where dry, loamy, fine sand surfaced layers of Sheppard series soils dominate and form coppice dunes due their strong rhizomes.
Stabilized dunes are preferred at higher elevations.
USA (AZ, CO, NM, UT, WY)
A food source for animals, there are differing views as to whether the plant has any medicinal properties for humans with the exception of brewing Mormon tea.
High-climbing jointfir · Join · Gerard jointfir · Ephedra intermedia · Dwarf Joint Fir · Nevada jointfir · Ephedra rhytidosperma · Chinese ephedra · Jointfir
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ephedra cutleri by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
