Ephedra californica is a species of Ephedra known by the common names California jointfir, California ephedra, desert tea, and caatillo. It is native to southern California, Arizona, and Baja California, where it grows in varied scrub and open habitats, including chaparral and grassland. This is a spindly shrub made up of twigs which are greenish when new and age to a yellowish-gray color and have fine longitudinal grooves on their surfaces. It may exceed a meter in height. The tiny leaves grow at nodes on the twigs and dry and crumble away to leave brownish ridges there. Male plants produce clumps of pollen cones at the nodes and female plants produce egg-shaped seed cones each about a centimeter long.