Have you ever seen frost flowers in life? If you stroll in the woods or near a creek in the cold morning, especially when the air is crisp and temperatures hover below freezing, you can see “Frostweed” grow to see nature’s odd ice sculptures, the “Frost Flowers.”. So fall is a wonderful time to find an amazing array of wildflowers in your national forests and grasslands. However, several experienced nature explorers haven’t seen frost flowers.

This is because you’ve got to be in the right place at the right time. These’re really not flowers at all, just spun glass or cotton candy fragile creations. The flowers last only until the sun or warm rays melt them away. Only very few lucky people can see them and know about their existence, their formation, and their disappearance for such a short period of time. It’s interesting to know, that “Frost Flowers” form when the ground temperature is warm enough for the plant’s root system to be active and the air temperature is cold enough to freeze the upward-flowing plant juices. The freezing juices may split open a whole section of stem and push out in a side curling sheet, or they may emerge from small slits and form long, ribbon-like strands or flowerlike clusters.

The moisture in the plant freezes, and the ice crystals push out through the stem. At times, more than a few ribbons of ice push out to create a flowerlike petal effect. As long as the juices flow, air temperatures remain low and the plant is shaded from the sun, these ice crystals continue to form. The frostweed, Verbesinia virginica, commonly occurring in Texas, is one of the species of plants, that are capable of producing icy creations. This waist-to-shoulder-high plant grows in thick patches in the moist, shaded soil of river or creek bottoms and forms heavy undergrowth in the shade of large trees.

This plant also is recognized as Indian tobacco and “tickweed” because the dried leaves were once used by Indians as tobacco and people walking through the plants invariably gather a few seed ticks. Frost flowers are delicate, attractive ribbons of ice crystals that form on the lower stems of a few species of Missouri native plants. When the backlit sun shades the crystal threads of frozen plants, it looks like a golden glow. So it is recommended to take your camera. If you’re lucky enough, you may be able to snap some photographs before the ice ribbons melt in the morning sunlight. If you want to relish the frost flowers in person this year, locate some of the “Frostweed” plants before the cold weather arrives.

Read More: The Mysterious Crooked Bush of Saskatchewan

Frost Flowers
Frost Flowers

Frost Flowers

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