Rainy Roots

Caught this little cutie trying to keep warm through the cold snap last weekend. Don’t forget to keep the humming bird feeder filled up during this time of year! These little guys need to eat often. 🧡

In the last few weeks we’ve observed such a cool phenomenon while out on our adventures: hair ice!

Hair ice, also known as ice wool or frost beard, is a type of ice that forms on dead wood and takes the shape of fine, silky hair. It is somewhat uncommon, and has been reported mostly at latitudes between 45 and 55 °N in broadleaf forests.

The hairs appear to root at the mouth of wood rays (never on the bark), and their thickness is similar to the diameter of the wood ray channels. A piece of wood that produces hair ice once may continue to produce it over several years.

German and Swiss scientists identified the fungus Exidiopsis effusa as key to the formation of hair ice. The fungus was found on every hair ice sample examined by the researchers, and disabling the fungus with fungicide or hot water prevented hair ice formation. The fungus shapes the ice into fine hairs through an uncertain mechanism and likely stabilizes it by providing a recrystallization inhibitor similar to antifreeze proteins.

Have you seen hair ice this year? Tag us in your photos!