Crystallofolia: Frost Flowers

Though cold, visiting here in the Ozarks in the cold winter has its perks.

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Though quite bracing , visiting here in the Ozarks in the cold winter has its perks . Besides the moth-eaten fresh air and cheer , the sweetheart of the mountain landscape is always breathtaking , however this time of year , Ozarkians are celebrating the natural phenomenon of Robert Lee Frost flowers .

Having neve seen a frost bloom except in photograph , when I recently spied them while riding down an Arkansas main road , I requested with urgency and fervour for my driver and fellow herborizing cohort , Tina Marie Wilcox , to pull over ! Then I spent a good deal of time inspecting , photographing and feel these amazing frozen cosmos of nature .

“ Crystallofolia ” is a comparatively new term for these botanical sparkler formations , so name by Bob Harms of the Plant Resource Center , University of Texas , Austin , who has consider icing flush for many years . ( For more information show Steven Foster ’s article onhttps://eureka.news/the-nature-of-eureka-happy-crystallofolia-season/ ) There are two plant native to this region which bring about this unequaled botanical occurence : white diadem - beard ( Verbesina virginica ) , which is often call frostweed and gas plant ( Cunila origanoides ) .

The scientific explanation is when temperatures pass freezing or below , the plant life sap freezes and salvo or breaks the epidermis of the stems of both of these species of plants . When the stems bristle the sap is released and as it spurts through the frigid atmosphere it freezes immediately creating quick-frozen deoxyephedrine crystals . Each one is different in condition , just like no two snowbird are alike . It is rather like poesy in motion – except that the bowel movement of the sap – is captured and frozen in move .

On this sojourn to the Ozarks I have come across many patch of Robert Lee Frost flower mostly along roadsides , often in ditch at the edge of woods and they also can be find oneself near creeks and wetland , most often in shady places .

During the produce time of year , white crown - byssus is rather rangy and weedlike , and can attain up to seven - feet tall ; it has bloodless flowers that bloom from late summer to former fall . Their rime flowers can split from the stems and seem anywhere from soil level and up to one or two base up the stem . On the other hand , dittany is a smaller plant pass about one to two metrical foot in stature with lavender - or white - hued flowers from midsummer to fall . The frost blossom on dittany come out right at ground degree .

These frigid flush made from strong quick-frozen cosh might be fat , pear-shaped , puffy - await like cotton candy or look like frozen ribbons ; they are quite extraordinary to lay eyes on and I find so fortunate to have experienced this incredible phenomena , shut up and personal .

Do you have these frozen miracles in your growing part ?

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