A surprise treat in the Missouri Ozarks: Frost Flowers!

in nature •  6 years ago 


I’ve lived in this area for most of my life and I’ve spent a lot of time exploring outdoors around here. I mean... a lot !

On Tuesday, my friends and I were lucky to see something out in our beloved Missouri Ozarks that I’ve never seen or even heard of: Frost flowers!!!

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Our childhood friend, Shane, came home to Missouri to visit for the first time in almost 7 years. (We’re all in our 30’s now). Despite the cold and depressing weather, we decided to bundle up and do what we do best! Cruise some country roads and walk around by the river.

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On our way to be river, we kept seeing these white spots on the embankments along the dirt roads, which we initially thought to be litter (It looked like shredded plastic shopping bags) Then our friend Tc said, “Stop the truck! I think those are Frost flowers!”

Sure enough, we had stumbled on an especially rare sight. These little magical ice formations were so fun to look at and photograph!!!

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A frost flower is formed when thin layers of ice are extruded from long-stemmed plants in autumn or early winter. The thin layers of ice are often formed into exquisite patterns that curl into "petals" that resemble flowers.
-Wikipedia.com

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Everyone had to jump out of the truck to snap some pictures of these little beauties

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We all hate cold weather around here, but not a single one of regretted this little trip! And now I can say that I know what Frost flowers are... and that I have experienced them first-hand with some of my favorite people 🙂

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Thanks for checking it out!

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That's relly cool! I never heard of frost flowers before now.

It was definitely cool! And very unexpected, so it was a nice surprise! :)

Those are beyond cool! I've never seen such a thing. Frost flowers! Very cool. I'm nominating this to @c-squared

I can’t believe I had never heard of such a thing. They were fascinating! Thanks for the nomination, Melinda. Hope all is well! :)

hey cool I have never heard of (nor seen, obviously :) this before! They are beautiful

Aren’t they though? I feel so lucky that we stumbled upon them. Neat stuff!


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Cool! I would jump out of the truck as well! I've never seen something like that :)

I was frustrated at first because I thought it was litter, but I was pleasantly surprised. They were so cool!