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Click for previous Image Image 1 of 4 Ephedra minima Mormon Tea

Ephedra minima

Mormon Tea

Plant Type:

ARID LAND PLANTS

Ephedra minima – The new 4” to 6” gray-green segmented filaments which substitute for actual leaves rise vertically and gradually find decumbency by their second year creating a wonderful wild-haired grayish evergreen tousle. With two you get fantastic red chickpea-like pods that remain for months studded among the gray-green mass. This small Mormon Tea will settle happily in scree or scrabble in full sun. It would make a beautiful evergreen trough or pot plant as well. A xeric plant, it requires no extra water during the growing season. Ours are planted among boulders and stone in the scrabble of our cacti and succulent garden where they have gradually increased their girth like curious evergreen shag carpets. This is a very cool primitive plant providing an unusual texture especially when used as counterpoint to more architectonic plants. Pot grown division.


Height:

6 In

Spread:

24 In

Zone:

(4)5 to 7(8?)
What is my hardiness zone?

Characteristics and Attributes for Ephedra minima

Season of Interest (Foliage)

  • Four Seasons

Autumn Interest

  • Fruit / Berries / Seed Heads

Nature Attraction

  • Deer Resistant

Light

  • Mostly Sunny
  • Full Sun

Attributes

  • Drought Tolerant
  • Edging
  • Rock Garden
  • Evergreen
  • Natural Garden
  • Salt Tolerant
  • Medicinal / Herbal

Growth Rate in the Garden

  • Slow

Soil

  • Scrabbled
  • Sandy
  • Draining
  • Calcareous
  • Impoverished

Origins

  • Tibet

Propagated By

  • Division