this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024
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Mycology

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This is hair ice. It is formed on dead barkless wood and a fungus called Exidiopsis effusa is the main reason. I found this and many more, during late autumn in a forest in Northern Denmark

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[–] TheBiscuitLout 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Thank you for posting this! I saw several examples of this during the recent freezing weather in the UK, and was confused as to what it was. I don’t recall having seen it before, but then I haven’t lived in a wooded valley during prolonged double-digit negative temperatures before either.

[–] cosmicrookie 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You're welcome!

As far as I know, and I can easily be wrong about this, it mostly forms in snow free weather and when the temperature is just below freezing

[–] TheBiscuitLout 2 points 10 months ago

That would correlate to when I saw it. It’s actually pretty hard to photograph when the ground is frosty, as there’s so little contrast

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Nice to see the real thing! Lots of people recently down south here in the states posting Verbesina and similar "frost flowers" producing plants during the freeze

[–] cosmicrookie 1 points 10 months ago

Oh nice! They look funky too!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Nice pic, been a few years since I've seen any but always a joy to find ☺️