Sweet Gum in the snow

The Sweet Gum tree, Liquidambar styraciflua, stands stately between our house and vegetable garden.  Today it is collecting snow,  the songbirds lite in it on their way to and from the feeders.  There is a Cardinal in the lower left hand corner.  (Guest post from Jo Smith.)

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Sweet Gum in the snow

Nature Notes: Frost Flowers

From a previous post:  Frost flowers occur when the air temperature is below freezing but the ground remains unfrozen.  Here in the Ozarks, that is a fairly common wintertime event.  Our ground never freezes deeply and usually thaws between cold snaps. Some dried weed stems continue drawing moisture up from the ground.  A frost flower forms when water inside a plant stem freezes, expands and is extruded through cracks in the stem forming thin ribbons of ice. Air bubbles trapped in the ice make it appear frothy white. The extruded ribbons of ice are often much more petal-like than the ones pictured here.  Because the stem cracks are irregularly  shaped and the ice pressure inside the stem varies over time, the extruded ice curves and bends.  Like snowflakes, no two frost flowers are ever alike.

Not all plants form frost flowers.  Two of the more common ones that do are yellow ironweed ( Verbesina alternifolia) and white crownbeard (Verbesina virginica). In fact, white crownbeard also is commonly called frostweed.

Another previous post featuring frost flowers, including the shot used to illustrate frost flowers on Wikipedia.

Editors Note (1/13/11):  I'm honored that the frost flowers in this post inspired the following poem by Kris Lindbeck.

You woke up

to frost flowers:

dry weeds

becoming miracles

over one cold night.

Thank you, Kris.

(You can follow Kris on Twitter or visit his blog Haiku etc.)

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Nature Notes: Frost Flowers

My World: Frost Flowers

It's been cold in My World over the past few days.  We've experienced our lowest temperatures thus far this winter.  One of the most beautiful and delicate phenomena resulting from this cold are frost flowers, which are actually neither frost nor flower.

Frost flowers occur when the air temperature is below freezing but the ground remains unfrozen.  Here in the Ozarks, that is a fairly common wintertime event.  Our ground never freezes deeply and usually thaws between cold snaps. A frost flower forms when water inside a plant stem freezes, expands and is extruded through cracks in the stem forming thin ribbons of ice. Air bubbles trapped in the ice make it appear frothy white. The extruded ribbons of ice are often much more petal-like than the ones pictured above.

Not all plants form frost flowers.  Two of the more common ones that do are yellow ironweed (Verbesina alternifolia) and white crownbeard (Verbesina virginica). In fact, white crownbeard also is commonly called frostweed.

Links:
Wikipedia:  Frost Flowers
Missouri Conservationist Online

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My World: Frost Flowers

Late Fall or Early Winter?

It's starting to look a lot like winter around here.

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Late Fall or Early Winter?

Tuesday Ice

We received just a little taste of freezing rain Tuesday morning. A new cold front moved through with rain ahead of it. Rain and below freezing temperatures overlapped for only an hour or so -- and , fortunately, the ground was still warm enough that no ice formed there. Only objects up off the ground received a thin coating of ice.

If the forecast is correct, we may not be so lucky later in the week. Another blast of Arctic air is headed our way. NOAA says freezing rain is supposed to start falling Thursday night and continue through early Saturday. I hope they're wrong. It's hard to imagine keeping electrical power with that much freezing rain. We'll see.

Tuesday Ice