A Frozen Water and Fungi Phenomenon….
What a beautiful brisk British Columbia morning it was on North Vancouver Island…. full of sunshine! Another fine snowless winter day hiking the Quatse River rainforest water shed. The day was full of fresh air, and seasonal changes of a forest preparing for spring were sprouting everywhere. Eagles & songbirds were vocal, and pairing up, Salmon Berry buds are appearing, and campfire season rapidly approaching.
The Rarity of Hair Ice
Along side the Quatse River we noticed numerous small tennis ball sized white wavy beard like formations… attached to bark-less alder branch debris. On closer inspection these were fragile curly hair structures…. spectacular “Hair Ice” find! Touch them and they would melt and fall apart.
These beautiful apparitions are actually ice crystal filaments, that form on bare sections of decaying deciduous wood. It was our lucky day… hair Ice is relatively rare and easily passed by. But here on North Vancouver Island these remarkable ice formations are somewhat common…. if one looks carefully low to the ground during mild freezing pre-spring freezing mornings.
Conditions Forming Hair Ice
The crystal hair like structures start their formation during the nighttime when the humidity is high and temperatures are near the freezing point ….
Optimal conditions are when temperatures are slightly under 0 °C (32 °F) and the air is humid such as you’d find in low riverside or lakeside settings. The hairs are very very brittle and take the shape of fine human hair sized curls and waves.
The hair formations can maintain their shape for hours and have being reported to sometimes last for days. The hairs appear to root at the mouth of wood rays (never on the bark), and their thickness is similar to the diameter of the minuscule wood ray channels. A piece of wood that produces hair ice once may continue to produce it over several years. Isn’t that amazing!
The Fungal Partner in Hair Ice
German and Swiss scientists have identified the fungus Exidiopsis effusa as key to the formation of hair ice. The fungus was found on every hair ice sample examined by the researchers, and disabling the fungus with fungicide or hot water prevented hair ice formation. The fungus shapes the ice into fine hairs through an uncertain mechanism and likely stabilizes it by providing a recrystallization inhibitor similar to antifreeze proteins.
In summary there is no end to the amazement to be found in rainforest back country, and Hair Ice is another incredible example of Mother Nature’s beauty…. And the intricacies of fungi in nature. Fragile hair ice is formed on decaying wood initiated by a fungi thereby when moisture freezes it sometimes creates delicate, angel-hair-like strands in rainforest temperate latitudes.
Interesting eh!
Isn’t Nature Grand… Thank you Jill Nancy
Gord
Photos © Christine Patterson.. all rights reserved