Ma Huang

Ephedra sinica is a low, much-branched gymnosperm shrub in the Ephedraceae, native to northern China, Mongolia and adjacent parts of Russia, where it inhabits dry steppes, sandy slopes and gravelly desert margins. Plants typically grow 20-40 cm tall, forming dense clumps of slender, jointed, bright green photosynthetic stems that resemble those of horsetails. The leaves are reduced to small, scale-like sheaths at the nodes, leaving the photosynthesis to the green stems. The species is dioecious: male cones are small and yellow, while female cones, borne on separate plants, ripen into fleshy, berry-like red structures about 6-8 mm long, each enclosing one or two seeds. The plant has a deep, woody taproot adapted to arid conditions. It is the principal commercial source of the alkaloid ephedrine and has been harvested for centuries from wild populations in Inner Mongolia and surrounding regions.