Frost Flowers and Ribbons – Common Ground Outside

Frost “flowers” and “ribbons” form with the first hard frosts of the year. With cold temperatures, the moisture in the grass and weed stubble of our pastures expands causing cracks in the stems. Moisture seeps out of the cracks. Once exposed, the moisture freezes and these ice crystals are then pushed out by water coming behind and subsequently freezing. This continuing process of expansion and freezing causes small, delicate crystal structures that look like flowers or ribbons.

Casually walking trough the pasture, the little frost flowers and ribbons are not so eye-catching.

But, up close:

Note the hoar frost on the leaf in the upper right of this image. Hoar frost forms on the surface of leaves and other surfaces. This is quite different than the frost ribbons and flowers that extrude from stems.

This is the first year I’ve seen so many of these ribbons and flowers. Now that we’ve had frosts several days, I suspect the “bloom” is gone. I’ll be looking next year and hope to get more photos!

Links: Frost Flowers and Ribbons, https://www.weather.gov/lmk/frost_flowers

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