
Mysterious “hair ice” is formed by fungus (2015) - camtarn
http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20150727-mystical-hair-ice-riddle-solved
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standeven
In a previous career I was a surveyor who spent lots of time in the forests of
British Columbia. One day I encountered hair ice but didn't realize what it
was; I thought it was just awesome looking ice. So I licked it. Immediately I
realized from the taste and texture that it was not ice but some sort of weird
forest growth and I gagged. There were no side effects but it tasted awful!

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i_feel_great
You licked a polar bear?

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goldenkey
Might have been a snow horse:
[https://youtu.be/O3rpmctmC_M](https://youtu.be/O3rpmctmC_M)

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dmix
This article is incredibly light on details. This either needs a better link
or it's not really HN worthy.

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doitLP
I first encountered these last year walking through the woods around Austin.
There was no snow so they were very visible amid the brown backdrop and
exquisitely beautiful. They all formed around the base of a particular type of
pithy stalk plant, just like as shown in the video.

The ice is very delicate and the merest touch can detach it. By 10am it was
all melted.

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angrow
previously:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%22hair%20ice%22&sort=byPopula...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%22hair%20ice%22&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)

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cwkoss
I wonder if/how the fungus is somehow gaining an adaptive advantage from this.
Would this assist in spore distribution? Prevent excess heat loss?

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edholland
It's quite possible that this is just a spectacular side effect of proteins
the fungus produces to prevent ice crystals forming within its cells.

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rkagerer
Timely! Just saw some of this in a nearby BC forest a few days ago.

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menzoic
https seems to be redirecting to http. At least on mobile.

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Sendotsh
Yup, on desktop too, even with HTTPS Everywhere on Firefox.

