Hair Ice - an unusual phenomenon to end 2020.
31st December 2020
Susan and I have seen some nice fungi on our walks this winter and there are still some to see albeit at the end of the main fungi season.
Witches Butter.
Velvet Shank.
Sulphur Tuft. (Quite Poisonous).
However, this morning on a walk through a local woods I looked on the ground among some fallen wood and I thought I could see ice. This seemed a little peculiar because it wasn’t that cold, and on closer inspection we came across a very unusual sight indeed. We could see what looked like an extremely unusual fungus but on touching it just melted. We took a number of photographs so we could reference it later at home.
This is what we had seen, it is known as Hair Ice;
When a very specific set of circumstances come together; a humid winter night in a forest when the temperature is just below 0 degrees Celsius and usually at a particular latitude of between 45 - 55 degrees north. A fungus named Exidiopsis Effusa which grows on damp rotting deciduous wood enables incredibly delicate ice crystals to form. This fungus, uses a complex process, unexplained by science for many years – (liquid water on the fungus freezes on contact with the surrounding atmosphere, and by a still not fully understood mechanism, is drawn out), allowing these ice structures to grow and resemble the shape and size of human hairs – about 0.01mm in diameter and several centimetres long. The fungus also supplies a recrystallization inhibitor containing complex organic compounds of Lignin and Tannin allowing these ice structures to maintain their incredibly fragile state and shape for a number of hours until there is a rise in the ambient temperature which results in melting. Because of these really quite specific set of circumstances this is quite a rare phenomenon and was a total and unexpected pleasure to see and photograph this morning – a fine end to 2020!
Happy New Year to all.
Witches Butter.
Velvet Shank.
Sulphur Tuft. (Quite Poisonous).
However, this morning on a walk through a local woods I looked on the ground among some fallen wood and I thought I could see ice. This seemed a little peculiar because it wasn’t that cold, and on closer inspection we came across a very unusual sight indeed. We could see what looked like an extremely unusual fungus but on touching it just melted. We took a number of photographs so we could reference it later at home.
This is what we had seen, it is known as Hair Ice;
When a very specific set of circumstances come together; a humid winter night in a forest when the temperature is just below 0 degrees Celsius and usually at a particular latitude of between 45 - 55 degrees north. A fungus named Exidiopsis Effusa which grows on damp rotting deciduous wood enables incredibly delicate ice crystals to form. This fungus, uses a complex process, unexplained by science for many years – (liquid water on the fungus freezes on contact with the surrounding atmosphere, and by a still not fully understood mechanism, is drawn out), allowing these ice structures to grow and resemble the shape and size of human hairs – about 0.01mm in diameter and several centimetres long. The fungus also supplies a recrystallization inhibitor containing complex organic compounds of Lignin and Tannin allowing these ice structures to maintain their incredibly fragile state and shape for a number of hours until there is a rise in the ambient temperature which results in melting. Because of these really quite specific set of circumstances this is quite a rare phenomenon and was a total and unexpected pleasure to see and photograph this morning – a fine end to 2020!
Happy New Year to all.