Green Mormon Tea, Green Ephedra                         e-fee-DRA VIR-i-dis

• Shrub with deciduous leaves and evergreen stems, upright, to about 3 ft (~0.9 m) high, stems green but age to yellow-green, thin, stiff.  Leaves opposite, awl-shaped, 3-6 mm long, forming a membranous sheath around the stem, drop early leaving a broom-like shrub.  Male flowers (pollen cones) in clusters of 2-5 per node, each with 6-8 stamen; female (seed) cones 2–6 per node, 6–10 mm, obovoid, sessile or short stalked.  Fruit red, fleshy, standing above the bracts.
• Sun, needs good drainage, drought tolerant.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 5(?)         Native range extends from the Arizona deserts to California, east of the Sierra Nevada, San Joaquin Valley and southern mountains, and to Utah, the western edge of the Colorado desert into southwestern Wyoming.
• viridis: green