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Ice Ribbons, Ice Flowers, Frost Flowers, Castles of Ice as shown by others by Dr. James R. Carter, Professor Emeritus Geography-Geology Department Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790
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I have a set of web pages showing ice formations that I have found and a discussion of what we know about these based on literature written over the past two centuries. Included here are photos of ice formations on wood in Wales from Geoff Gaynor and photos of ice formations on a metal fence from Sheryl Terris. And, I have a page of photos of ice ribbons and rods that I grew on steel pipes. Below is my collection of web pages that show these ice formations, and a poem about these. I would appreciate if you tell me about sites that I do not know about. =========================== D. Bruce Means in Natural History, February 2004 describes these formations that he found in a forested area in north Florida. He refers to these as ice blossoms in his title and as ice flowers in the article and notes that others have called them frost flowers. He names the species of perennials on which these are known to occur--white crownbeard, yellow ironweed, and Helianthemum canadense. White crownbeard is sometimes known as frostweed. Means shows nine photos on his web page, and references to his articles about these ice formations. Means had a brief article on ice flowers in the November 2004 issue of National Geographic. =========================== Betty Swihart in Missouri Conservation Online, had a nice article about Frost Flowers, but that site is no longer be up. I am leaving the link in case it is reposted. Swihart's original article was published in Missouri Conservationist, October 2000. =========================== The naturealmanac site has a page showing examples of ice flowers sent in by others. The entry for 2004 has four photos, one by a mystery person and three by Steve Haskins. In the 2005 section Mary Alice Beer has four photos of ice on Dittany and one with ice on White Crownbeard, all from her yard in Arkansas. She has given descriptive names to the ice formations like we identify clouds. And, Rhona Caruso of Missouri has three photos of ice on ironweed Veronia. These three occurrences are much different from the other photos on this page. =========================== Mims has an online article on Frost Flowers as seen in south Texas. His presentation shows a good photo of one of these near the ground. He notes they are also called frost castles or ice castles and he notes that these occur in several species of plants, as:
Mims among his many pages has a Gallery where he has two sets of photos of what he calls Frost Castles on Geronimo Creek, Texas. In two relatively small boxes and a block of text he tells about these ice formations on White Crownbeard. In the top box he cycles through 20 photos related to the topic. In an animated loop in the bottom box we see layers of ice unfolding as temperatures rise above freezing. In this loop the ice appears to be row upon row of needles, very similar to the images of ice growing on sticks, like those of Geoff Gaynor of Wales. =========================== The Weather Doctor, aka Dr. Keith C. Heidorn, has one page devoted to ice flowers. And, included on this page he shows two photos of ice growing from a metal fence. This is where I got my introduction to the interesting photos of Sherly Terris. =========================== Mary Alice of Arkansas has posted many photos to her Public Gallery. All of these photos are from 2007 but she notes she has seen these for many years. She has a nice collection of Dittany and White Crownbeard in her yard which makes viewing very convenient. Oh, you can purchase prints of her images. =========================== The Watersheds.org site of the southern Missouri Ozarks has four very attractive photos and a discussion of how the ice forms, attributable to Peter Callaway. =========================== In a lengthy Cloudland Journal for November 2003, Tim Ernst shares observations about his Arkansas environment. In his entry for 11/24/03 he talks about going out on a cold morning to find these frost flowers in his garden where he often finds them on ". . . the first really good cold snap of the season." He notes "I can always count on this spot for the best frost flowers" but they were not here this day. On 11/25 the flowers appeared and the author has six photos of those frost flowers. There are some beautiful images here. The author notes that within about 100 yards there were more than 150 frost flowers. Interestingly, he observed that it was not as cold this day as it was the day before. =========================== http://www.missouri.edu/~umo_herb/monps/Images.html is the site of the Missouri Native Plant Society with sets of photos by two different photographers. Wendy Morrison has three photos of ribbons of ice extending out from Verbesina virginica. There is a discussion of how these formed by George Yatskievych followed by four photos of frost flowers taken by John Oliver of St. Louis in 2005. The photo on the January page of the 2006 Natural Events Calendar from the Missouri Department of Conservation has a beautiful image of a frost flower blooming. This 10 X 14 inch print shows a complex of ribbons from more than one stalk. The photo belongs to John D. Miller. Sorry to say I cannot point you to this photo on the web. =========================== This link goes to a page with 16 thumbnail photos of Frost Flowers. This page is the first of three such pages showing 48 images in all. Clicking on a photo brings up a large image. Then clicking on next image you can go through all 48 images. A few of these images are similar to what I have seen, but many of these formations are taller than wide and extend 20 or more centimeters up the stem (more than a foot). Many of these ice formations are quite massive. In some photos we see one stem with a mass of ice and nearby stems with no ice. Why? And, some of these photos show the rupture of stems very clearly. These images are from Texas on December 15, 2004 on Frostweed (Verbesina virginica). The photographer is identified as Tim Jones. =========================== http://rurality.blogspot.com/2005_02_01_rurality_archive.html In a collection of many photos the author has two small photos, which are good, and a few paragraphs of discussion. These appear to be from Rurality, Alabama. The entry for these photos is labeled February 18, 2005. If that is the date these were observed it is the first time I have seen these occur in mid to late winter. That means the plant stems have not decayed significantly over the winter. ========================== Dave's Garden at http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/62734/ has a plant file entry for Verbesina virginica and calls it Frostweed and Indian Tobacco. There is very good information about the range of this plant and it use as an ornamental and as a wildflower. They note it is found or used in Florida and Texas. There are 13 photos of the plant, two of which show the formation of ice. ======================== The entry for White Crownbeard (Verbesina virginica) at http://2bnthewild.com/plants/H26.htm has one photo with a good description of the plant. It notes the plant is also known as Tickweed. And, they describe the process correctly noting the dead plants "continue to pull moisture from the ground and extrude beautiful ice formations." ============================== Here is a link to the poem Verbesina Virginica by Ingrid Karklins dedicated to the frost flowers as she viewed them in Austin, TX. http://www.racethesky.com/verbesinavirginica.html ============================== Dave Boesch pointed me to http://balinsky.com/gallery/ This link takes you to the gallery where there are four pages of different subjects. On page 3 is a collection of 8 photos of what is called Frostweed from 2004. On page 4 are 48 photos from 2003. This later page is found at http://balinsky.com/gallery/Frostweed These seem to be from the Austin, TX, area. =============================== Dave Boesch found a large display of frost flowers in mid-October 2006 and captured many images. He has 28 on display at http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/gallery.jsp?gid=768a5498ce7d17d39221 You can see the thumbnails but the larger images have PROOF written across them. But, they are still worth looking at and of course are available for purchase in many sizes and formats. =============================== Oh, I found a good web site for what someone calls ice flowers but these are photos of the work of Jack Frost on windows. The images are beautiful but they are very different from the ice ribbons or frosts flowers referenced above. How nice it is that there are beautiful flowers to be seen when the temperature drops below freezing, whether in the woods or on the window. We do not have to wait until spring to see flowers--look around. And what are these things called? There is no standardization of terms. While one person calls these ice flowers, another person uses that same term to apply to something different. I prefer ice ribbons, for those formations which look like ribbons. Some look like cotton candy based on their form. Frost flowers and Ice flowers are commons names and I happy to use these terms. Please send your comments to me, as well as any links to other pages that I do not know about. Thank you, Dr. Jim Carter at jrcarter@ilstu.edu |
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one of the pages of Dr. James R. Carter |