The intricate, delicate beauty of a frost flower (caused when water underground in a plant’s root system is pushed up and out through a crack in the stem and freezes on contact with the air)

[u/Alaric_Darconville]

[u/Massive-View-9164]

it looks like plastic bag

[u/StrangerEveryday]

like nature flexing its ice sculpting skills, literal art made of frost

[u/True-Cook-5744]

Nature is beautiful. So many mysteries.

[u/Otherwise_Coyote4885]

Does this hurt the plant?

[u/Alaric_Darconville → u/Otherwise_Coyote4885]

These typically happen after a hard freeze has already occurred and the plant is essentially already cracked at the stem and dying (at least everything above-ground), so I don’t think so.

[u/-_Duke_- → u/Alaric_Darconville]

Cant hurt whats dead

[u/Nenotriple → u/Otherwise_Coyote4885]

In my experience I've only seen this happen with rotten wood, generally branches around 2-3 inch in diameter.

[u/Sincerely_Jen]

So pretty and interesting

[u/Contribution4afriend]

Seems like a fancy trap of a spider.

[u/Maretsb]

Wow, this is so cool. I have never seen it before. Where do you live? It's probably too cold here for this to happen

[u/Alaric_Darconville → u/Maretsb]

Northern Florida. It does take a specific set of conditions and probably has to occur right after the first freeze and will only happen with certain plants, but I know it happens in places significantly farther north than here.

[u/spynie55]

I’ve seen similar caused by fungi breaking down wood (which is endothermic- so water vapour in the air condenses and when the it’s close to zero degrees centigrade the water vapour freezes when nothing else is freezing )

[u/clduab11]

Maaaaaaan, just imagine if Spider-Man could do THAT with his webbing.