When described, this new species made the cover of Taiwania [drawing by Li Aili].
Ephedra chengiae
No data as of 2025.01.15.
There are two varieties (no synonyms):
Dioecious shrubs up to 36 cm tall. Bark gray, fibrous, longitudinally fissured. Woody stems robust, up to 8 mm in diameter, rarely branched, having twigs clustered at the top or in the upper portions of the woody stems. Twigs green to yellowish green, noded, usually not branched or branched only once; nodes enlarged, usually having two brown leaves fused laterally into a white membranous leaf sheath when young, but caducous and leaving greyish black scars at the nodes; internodes longitudinally furrowed, 1.5–5 cm long, 1–2 mm diameter. Pollen cones yellow, sessile, 5–7 mm × 4 mm, with 3 or 4 pairs of bracts; male reproductive units consisting of a basal pair of bracteoles and a central synangiophore; each synangiophore usually having 6 synangia at the apex; synangia prominently prominently stalked. Seed cones opposite or clustered at nodes, sessile, ovoid, ellipsoid to subglobose, 5–7 × 4 mm; bracts in 3–4 pairs, with a membranous margin, entire, basal pairs small, distally larger, the uppermost pair twice as large as the middle pair, fused for ca. 1/2 of their length, apex obtuse, red and fleshy when ripe. Seeds enclosed, ovoid to ellipsoidal, convex dorsally and flat ventrally, 4–5 mm long, 3–4 mm broad, black, glossy; micropylar tube usually straight, slightly curved, ca. 2 mm long. Pollen shed in July (Yang and Ferguson 2021). See figure at right, showing female cone at lower left, male cone at lower right, seed at upper right.
Var. spinosa differs from var. chengiae in its dwarf and cushion-like habit and the straight and spinose twigs with 1–2 internodes (vs. erect shrub, twigs not spinose with more than 3 nodes) (Yang and Ferguson 2021).
E. chengiae resembles E. rituensis and E. intermedia in its erect habit with prominent woody stems, elongated twigs with many nodes, and a long micropylar tube. It differs from E. rituensis by the synangia being prominently stalked (vs. sessile), the female cone having fewer bract pairs (3–4 vs. 4–5), and the glossy seeds. It differs from E. intermedia by the prominently stalked synangia (vs. sessile or nearly so), the female cone having fewer bract pairs (3–4 vs. 2–5), the glossy seeds (vs. seeds not glossy), and the micropylar tube being more or less straight (vs. twisted). E. chengiae also resembles E. yangthangensis of northern India, but E. chengiae has red rather than yellowish-orange mature bracts, its synangia are stalked rather than sessile, and its micropylar tube is straight, or nearly so (Yang and Ferguson 2021).
The IUCN has not evaluated the conservation status of this species or its varieties; Yang and Ferguson (2021) recommend that they should be listed as "Data Deficient".
China: Xizang (Tibet), thus far collected only in the far south, near the borders of Bhutan, Nepal and India; at elevations of 3600-4233 m in rock crevices, on the slopes of sand dunes, and in grassland.
No data as of 2025.01.15.
No uses are reported, but other species of Ephedra are widely used in Chinese and Tibetan traditional medicine; that may also be the case with E. chengiae.
This species is known only from a few locations, which are reported by Yang and Ferguson (2021).
The epithet honors Cheng Ching-Yung for her contributions to taxonomic knowledge of Chinese gnetophytes (Yang and Ferguson 2021).
Yang, Yong and David K. Ferguson. 2021. Ephedra chengiae (Ephedraceae), a new species from Xizang of China. Taiwania 66:57-60. DOI: 10.6165/tai.2021.66.57.
Last Modified 2025-01-15
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