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{{italic title}}
{{taxobox
|name = ''Ephedra monosperma''
|image = Ephedra minima.jpg
| image_caption = Matured red and fleshy cones of ''E. monosperma''
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| status_ref =  <ref name="IUCN">{{IUCN |assessor=A. Bell |assessor2=S. Bachman |last-assessor-amp=yes |year=2011 |title=''Ephedra monosperma'' |id=201704 |version=2014.3 |accessdate=19 March 2015}}</ref>
| regnum = [[Plant]]ae
| divisio = [[Gnetophyta]]
| classis = [[Gnetopsida]]
| ordo = [[Gnetales]]
| familia = [[Ephedraceae]]
| genus = ''[[Ephedra (genus)|Ephedra]]''
| species = '''''E. monosperma'''''
| binomial = ''Ephedra monosperma''
| binomial_authority = [[Johann Georg Gmelin|J. G. Gmel.]] ''ex'' [[Carl Anton von Meyer|C. A. Mey.]]
| synonyms =
*''Ephedra minima'' <small>K.S. Hao</small>
}}
'''''Ephedra monosperma''''', also called '''''Ephedra minima''''' or '''dan zi ma huang''' (in Chinese), is small [[shrub]] in the family of [[Ephedraceae]].

It is distributed from China to Siberia and found growing in rocky slopes or dry places.<ref name="Fl" /> Its ephedrine extract has been used in traditional medicine in China and Japan, but is banned in USA since 1994 for causing various adverse effects.<ref name="Mo"/>

==Description==
''Ephedra monosperma'' is perrennial<ref name="SS"/> small shrub that ranges 5 cm to 15 cm high, often with creeping runners. The woody stems are much branched and short, 1–5 cm, and have knotted nodes. Branchlets are spreading and slim usually with slight curved shape. Internodes of branchlets are 1–3 cm long, 1 mm in diameter.

The leaves are opposite, basal 1/3–2/3 connate their length. There is one ovule in each cone that is enclosed by two pairs of cone bracts.<ref name="Fem"/> Pollen cones, consist of 3 or 4 pairs of decussate scales with broad margin, are oblong-spherical shaped, sessile or subsessile at nodes and paired or rarely solitary.<ref name="SS"/><ref name="Hu"/>

Bracts of pollen cones are in 2 to 4 pairs, 1/2 connate their length. It pollinates in June, has matured seeds in August,<ref name="Fl"/> and flowers from May.<ref name="SS"/> Seed cones are solitary or opposite at nodes, sessile, and ovoid at maturity.<ref name="Fl" /> The mature cones are fleshy, red, and glaucose, 6–9 mm long, 5–8 mm across.<ref name="Hu"/>

==Habitat and distribution==
''Ephedra monosperma'' is found growing in crevices of limestone, cliffs, and rocky slopes, sometimes on the rocks on slope of river valleys often with sparse Juniperus and shrub vegetation. It is also often found in dry pine forests.<ref name="SS"/>

''E. monosperma'' is mainly distributed in these Asian locations: [[China]] (Beijing, Chongqing, Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Hubei, Nei Monggol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Tianjin, Xinjiang, and Yunnan<ref name="SS"/>) [[Tibet]], [[Kazakhstan]], [[Mongolia]], [[Pakistan]], and Russia (Buryatiya, Chita, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, and Yakutiya<ref name="SS"/>).<ref name="Fl"/>

==Uses==

===Medicine===
Ephedrae herbs which includes ''Ephedra monosperma'' has been used in Chinese and Japanese medicine for several thousand years.<ref name="Mo"/> The pharmacological effect of Ephedra medicine is in wide range: increase in heart rate and elevation of blood pressure against heart block or [[postural hypotension]], constriction of peripheral blood vessels, bronchodilation against bronchial asthma, CNS stimulation against [[narcolepsy]] or depression, and urine retention against urinary incontinence.<ref name="Current"/>

The pure alkaloid [[ephedrine]] from the Ephedra herbs is popular for effective medicine for asthma, especially because it can be given by mouth unlike adrenaline.<ref name="Med"/>

It has been recently used in street drug and nutritional supplements using [[methamphetamine]] extracted from Asian ''Ephedra''.<ref name="New"/> However, ephedrine products are now banned in U.S.A since 1994 for causing various and serious adverse effects, such as headache, insomnia, stroke, [[arrhythmias]], [[myocardial infarction]], [[psychosis]], heart palpitations, cardiac arrest and even death.<ref name="Mo"/>

===Tea===
To make Mongolia tea, dried mature seed-cones of ''Ephedra monosperma'' are mixed with white tea or herbs, taken with or without cream and milk.<ref name="Hu"/>

==References==
{{Reflist|2|refs=
<ref name="Fl">Flora of China Editorial Committee. [http://www.tropicos.org/Reference/1018510] 1999. Flora of China, Volume 4: 1–453. Science Press & Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing & St. Louis.</ref>
<ref name="Med">Lee, M R. "The History of Ephedra (ma-huang)." MEDLINE. The Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Mar. 2011. Web. 29 Apr. 2012.</ref>
<ref name="Hu">Hu, Shiu-ying. Food Plants of China. Hong Kong: Chinese UP, 2005. pp. 279.</ref>
<ref name="SS">Bachman, Steven. "Species Summary- Ephedra Monosperma." [http://threatenedplants.myspecies.info/node/2651#attachments] Sampled Red List Index for Plants. 12 Apr. 2011.</ref>
<ref name="Mo">Kitani, Yuki, Shu Zhu, Takayuki Omote, Ken Tanaka, Javzan Batkhuu, Chinbat Sanchir, Hirotoshi Fushimi, Masayuki Mikage, and Katsuko Komatsu. "Molecular Analysis and Chemical Evaluation of Ephedra Plants in Mongolia." Biological & Pharmaceutical Bulletin 32.7 (2009): 1235-243.</ref>
<ref name="New">Caveney, S., DA Charlet, and H. Freitag. "American Journal of Botany." New Observations on the Secondary Chemistry of World Ephedra (Ephedraceae). American Journal of Botany, July 2001.</ref>
<ref name="Current">Abourashed E, El-Alfy A, Khan I, Walker L (2003). "Ephedra in perspective--a current review". Phytother Res 17 (7): 703–12.</ref>
<ref name="Fem">Rydin, Catarina, Anbar Khodabandeh, and Peter K. Endress. "The Female Reproductive Unit of Ephedra (Gnetales): Comparative Morphology and Evolutionary Perspectives." Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 163.4 (2010): 409-10.</ref>
}}

[[Category:Ephedraceae|monosperma]]
[[Category:Flora of Chongqing]]
[[Category:Flora of Gansu]]
[[Category:Flora of Guizhou]]
[[Category:Flora of Hebei]]
[[Category:Flora of Hubei]]
[[Category:Flora of Inner Mongolia]]
[[Category:Flora of Ningxia]]
[[Category:Flora of Qinghai]]
[[Category:Flora of Shandong]]
[[Category:Flora of Shanxi]]
[[Category:Flora of Sichuan]]
[[Category:Flora of Xinjiang]]
[[Category:Flora of Yunnan]]
[[Category:Flora of Kazakhstan]]
[[Category:Flora of Mongolia]]
[[Category:Flora of Pakistan]]
[[Category:Flora of Russia]]
[[Category:Flora of Siberia]]
[[Category:Flora of Tibet]]
[[Category:Medicinal plants of Asia]]
[[Category:Plants used in traditional Chinese medicine]]
[[Category:Plants described in 1845]]
[[Category:Least concern plants]]

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Tom.Reding: /* top */Fix :Category:CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter: vauthors/veditors or enumerate multiple authors/editors/assessors; WP:GenFixes on using AWB