Abstract
Ephedra plants collected mainly in Inner Mongolia and Qinghai Province, China, were studied morphologically to clarify the specific differences between E. sinica Stapf, E. intermedia Schrenk et C.A.Meyer, and E. distachya L. recorded in China. The results obtained were as follows: E. sinica and E. distachya recorded in China were the same species; E. sinica and E. intermedia could be stem-anatomically distinguished from each other by examining both the number of fiber bundles in the cortex and the number of fibers in the pith into account, and the species of commercial samples of Ma-huang as well as sterile herbarium specimens that include no cones were identified by this method; All Ephedra plants collected in the eastern region of Qinghai Province, where E. sinica was reported to be distributed, were identified as E. intermedia ; The limited plant of E. intermedia without cones collected in the east of Qinghai Province might possibly have been identified as E. sinica in the past; The plant origin of the Ma-huang produced in Qinghai Province, which is collected in the eastern regions such as Longyangxia district, was thought to be E. intermedia.
