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Low toxicity🍵 Tea💊 Medicinal

🌿 Ephedra (Mormon tea)

Ephedra nevadensis · Éphédracées

🏜️ Desert
🧠 To remember it“Green jointed stems, but not horsetail” — in the dry desert, a bush with horsetail-like segmented stems is almost always an ephedra, as true horsetail prefers moist soils.
Ephedra (Mormon tea) — Ephedra nevadensis

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Desert shrub with green, jointed, ridged stems reminiscent of horsetails, which perform most of the photosynthesis: its leaves, reduced to small scales, fall off shortly after forming. It produces discreet cones with fleshy white to red bracts rather than true flowers, as ephedra is a gymnosperm and not a flowering plant.

  1. green, ridged stems jointed in segments (clearly visible nodes)
  2. leaves reduced to tiny, quickly deciduous scales
  3. discreet cones with fleshy white to red bracts (no true flowers, it is a gymnosperm)
  4. low, bushy shrub typical of dry, rocky desert soils
Sizelow shrub, usually under 1.5 m
Floweringcones in spring
Habitatarid regions of the North American Southwest; also represented by other species of the genus in Southern Europe, North Africa, Central Asia, and Northern China

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Field horsetail (Equisetum arvense)none for field horsetail in reasonable amounts, but it is neither the same plant nor the same family

To tell them apart: both plants share green stems jointed in segments that can be misleading at first glance, but ephedra is a woody desert shrub with stems that do not snap cleanly at each node, whereas horsetail is a non-woody plant of damp soils whose stems easily pull apart at each joint; their habitats (dry desert vs. damp soils) almost never overlap, which greatly limits any risk of real confusion

🍽️ Eating it

Partsdried stems, as an infusion
Seasontoute l'année
Tasteslightly astringent and resinous

Preparation : dried stems steeped in hot water to make 'Mormon tea' or 'Brigham tea', a traditional herbal tea of the American Southwest

💊 Healing with it

ephedra species rich in alkaloids (ephedrine, pseudoephedrine) have documented sympathomimetic and decongestant properties; certain North American species like E. nevadensis contain very little to none at all

Level of evidence : limited studies — Wikipedia — Ephedra (plant)

⚠️ dietary supplements containing alkaloid-rich ephedra were banned in the United States in the early 2000s due to documented serious cardiovascular risks (arrhythmias, heart attacks); do not combine with prolonged or concentrated use without medical advice

🪓 Other bushcraft uses

  • archaeological use documented for at least 15,000 years, with fossil remains found in Taforalt Cave in Morocco and pollen associated with Neanderthal sites
Sources (1)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.