Fabulous Frost Flowers

Humans have a love-hate relationship with winter. On one hand it’s cold and sometimes dreary and on the other it is a respite from the heat and bugs of summer. With unsurpassed vistas, clear woodland paths and limitless opportunities to spot birds, raptors and other wildlife, winter also allows for some of the best hiking of the year. During winter hikes one can spot some of nature’s best architectural wonders, specifically those created during freezing weather, such as ice falls, hoary frost and frozen fog. My all-time favorite wintertime sculpture has to be the elusive and transient frost flower.

Of course the frost flower is not a true flower at all, but rather, a sculptural one made up of one or more delicate ribbons of ice. While the term frost flower is most commonly used to describe the stunningly delicate and ephemeral sculptures, they are also known as ice flowers, ribbon ice, ice blossoms, ice needles, ice castles, rabbit ice and ice fringes. Whatever you prefer to call them, frost flowers are both beautiful and fleeting. To catch one, you must know how they are formed and be prepared to search them out when the time is right. continued...

Read the entire article at Show Me Oz