The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Ephedra distachya
Also called Sea Grape, Jointfir, European Ephedra, Little Sea Grape
Join (Ephedra distachya) is a low, leafless-looking shrub of dry sandy ground, growing 25 to 50 cm high across Europe and western and central Asia. It needs full sun and very well-drained sandy soil, and is grown mainly as an ornamental or dune-stabilizing plant.
Ephedra distachya is a shrub in the family Ephedraceae that stands about 25 cm to 50 cm high. The shrub grows in many parts of the world, including southern and central Europe and western and central Asia. Its local names include somlatha. Ephedra distachya lives on grey dunes which are fixed and stable sand dunes that are covered in continuous vegetation.
Ephedra distachya is used to relieve acute muscular and rheumatic pains (when it is called teamsters' tea), as a stimulant, and in the cardio tonics in Ayurveda. It is sometimes identified with the legendary drug soma, as described in the Avesta and the Rig Veda, the respective ancient sacred texts of the Zoroastrian and Hindu faiths.
High-climbing jointfir · Cutler's jointfir · Gerard jointfir · Ephedra intermedia · Dwarf Joint Fir · Nevada jointfir · Ephedra rhytidosperma · Chinese ephedra · Jointfir
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ephedra distachya 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.
