finding blue joint-fir

[jerry_friedman]

Hi, all. Plant Select recommends the Chinese shrub called ma huang or blue joint-fir, Ephedra equisetina, for us Westerners. (I'm in New Mexico.) Bluish leafless stems, yellow flowers in spring, red berries in summer (maybe only if you have a female plant), extremely drought-tolerant. Strangely enough, I can't find plants at local nurseries or on the Web. Does anyone know where you can buy it?

Does anyone know why it's so hard to find? I'm getting paranoid enough to wonder whether it's because of the FDA ban on the stimulant ephedrine, which E. equisetina seems to be the best source of.

[John McGaw]

Doing a google for "plant nursery Ephedra equisetina" (sans quotes of course) turns up quite a few hits and at first glance some of them certainly seem to be selling it. Don't know how you feel about buying plants that you can't lay hands upon first though.

[jerry_friedman]

Thanks for the reply. I hadn't thought of that combination. Not one of the plausible hits I got is selling it retail in America, believe it or not. ("Plausible" means "not on a page about legal highs or the flora of Kyrgyzstan".)

That's usually not a problem for me, but if only half of these plants have berries, it is something of a problem, and if you have to get two (if you're lucky) to get the berries, maybe I'll be fine with ephedras I can get locally even if they don't have berries.

[jerry_friedman]

Thanks for the reply. I hadn't thought of that combination. Not one of the plausible hits I got is selling it retail in America, believe it or not. ("Plausible" means "not on a page about legal highs or the flora of Kyrgyzstan".)

That's usually not a problem for me, but if only half of these plants have berries, it is something of a problem, and if you have to get two (if you're lucky) to get the berries, maybe I'll be fine with ephedras I can get locally even if they don't have berries.