It doesn’t take a meteorologist to recognize that two snowfalls on my unraked leaves are a clear signal that autumn is finished and winter has arrived. No amount of hoping for one of those 60° temperature spikes will make it so. As a cold-weather wimp, I have to look hard to find rosy reasons to get outdoors.
But on a recent trip visiting family in southern Kentucky, I spotted a rare winter phenomenon just outside my cozy, warm bedroom that can only be called exquisite, natural art: frost flowers. And for once, as I bolted from the door, I hardly noticed the sub-freezing temperatures.
Also known as “ice flowers or ice ribbons,” these delicate ice petals only form under very specific conditions, and it only took seven decades to get a glimpse of a few along the roadside. Nothing this rare and exquisite happens that often, and my scientific brain was churning to find an explanation. The National Weather Service came to the rescue:
“Frost flowers are thin layers of ice that are extruded through slits from the stems of white or yellow wingstem plants, among others. Their formation requires freezing air temperature, soil that is moist or wet but not frozen, and a plant’s stem that has not been previously frozen. The water in the plant’s stem is drawn up from the ground by capillary action. It expands as it freezes and splits the stem vertically, and as more water is drawn up from the ground through the split, it freezes and extrudes a paper-thin ice layer through the stem.”
Nature’s magnificent handiwork never ceases to amaze. These flowers, like snowflakes, are unique and no two are alike. Funnily enough, when I first looked out the window, I fumed that some teenage prankster had unleashed a roll of toilet paper. But on closer inspection, I was dead chuffed to have my first frost flower sighting.
Maybe ice flowers are more common than I realize. I’m curious to hear: have you seen these winter wonders, and if so, where?
Happy Holidays,
James & Terri
GALLIVANCE 