When Winter Gives Dead Branches Hair

[@SciShow]

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[@seannot-telling9806]

Sadly they don't cover some of the radio stuff I need.

[@patrickwalley9803]

This also happens in the ground. Around central Mississippi in two towns magee and in Richmond I have seen this "ice hair" coming out of the ground during winter.

[@SuperWarriorcatslove]

So, does the ice feel soft or fluffy, or is it just brittle, like grabbing a handful of snow?

[@patrickwalley9803]

@@SuperWarriorcatslove fluffy but fragile

[@lapianissimo]

Great video! The icy hair looks like what 'grows' on certain weeds in the early winter, that I call ice flowers. Here's a video showing them. kzbin.info/www/bejne/h6vIaGueaNx3aNE

[@Master_Therion]

Trees with hair? No, it must be some kind of fir.

[@hedgehogsonic11]

Master Therion Ayy

[@procrastinator99]

LOL.

[@Beryllahawk]

Grown!

[@survivedandthriving]

Heehhe - thank you for the chuckle :D

[@WheezardX]

Well pun

[@Eneov]

This video sounded weird, that's why I'm here. I was not disappointed

[@Vercingetorix525]

SciShow is the best. Love seeing a new video when I'm about to eat dinner

[@Eneov]

@@Vercingetorix525 hah!

[@clutchyfinger]

All RPGs have told me to collect this rare material for later.

[@arthas640]

You're comment made me realize how Chinese Traditional Medicine came about: some random Chinese people wandering around the countryside grabbing anything weird and taking it back into town to hock it or taking it home and combining random bits of junk together in the hopes of making a potion and then hocking that in town. Eventually the adventurers or the merchants rolled a high enough charisma roll that now an entire country thinks douglas fir bark, wood ear mushrooms, and dried flamingo poop boiled together into a tea will cure impotence.

[@AymenDZA]

When even a dead tree branch can grow better, longer and prettier hair than you can.

[@PaleGhost69]

I love Olivia's videos. She has the craziest topics.

[@KevAlberta]

Ill show u crazy!

[@charlieclark9552]

Me too

[@TheRealGuywithoutaMustache]

So this is how Queen Elsa grew beautiful hair.

[@JustAGal217]

Lol possibly

[@ls200076]

@@JustAGal217 Ugh, I came

[@Soooooooooooonicable]

Are you calling Elsa a rotting branch?

[@JustAGal217]

@@ls200076 k you clean up afterwards

[@dexis9412]

A fungus infection?

[@SciFactsYT118]

Random fact: Marie Curie's notebooks are still radioactive. ☢

[@DrD0000M]

So is Marie.

[@terreqrue]

@@DrD0000M so is Joe

[@JustinAlexanderBell]

Everyone is radioactive.

[@josephburchanowski4636]

So is my notebook. Seriously, basically everything is radioactive. You, me, the food you eat, the air you breath. Hell there is a unit of radiation doses based on bananas (the BED, banana equivalent dose).

[@lordgarion514]

@@josephburchanowski4636 Yes, that is indeed true, but anyone with any common sense knows that when someone says "X is radioactive", they're talking about "X" being well above what is normal, and of it being with the more horrible types of radioactive elements. So, do you lack common sense, or are you just being a pedantic ass???

[@1jotun136]

Olivia, I have to say, you're on screen presence has improved so much in the last couple of years. Not the nervous grey house mouse anymore. Congratulations.

[@lexvegers242]

She's a mom now, so she knows what real stress is. Presenting a fun show like this should definitely not be a stress factor.

[@TheDevler23]

I LOVE when Frost Flowers bloom in my town! We have some great photographers who wander the natural beauty around us, so our fb community page often has pictures of these beautiful, ephemeral, temporary beauties!

[@TheDevler23]

Western Washington has the perfect conditions for these, multiple times each winter. We call them Frost Flowers and they're SO COOL!

[@christelheadington1136]

@@TheDevler23 -Of course they're cool...cold even.

[@AmberAmber]

@@christelheadington1136 lol 😊

[@AmberAmber]

@@TheDevler23 That's AWESOME!!

[@achatinaslak742]

Fungi keep on to surprise me. Fungi are miraculous organisms, often beautiful, sometimes lifesaving, allways indispensable. Without Fungi is no life possible.

[@pranavlimaye]

Agreed, except for all the life that existed before fungi even did

[@Mortthemoose]

Make that 56°North! I live at 56°North in Scotland, and I've seen this several times. Infact, I saw a lot of twigs with this hair ice on it on 31st Dec 2019 in Dunkeld. It's stunning to look at, and you never quite believe it's ice, until you pick the stick up and feel it. The wonders of nature! ☺

[@Beryllahawk]

When the temperature is scary, and the trees get hairy... OK, just below freezing isn't all that scary, except for most of my neighbors down here in the deep South of USA.

[@WWZenaDo]

♪They're creepy and they're kooky ♫Mysterious and spooky♪ They're altogether ooky♪♪ ♫The Addams Family♪

[@Cillana]

I live at 30° latitude so I've never seen this phenomenon on dead wood. We do however get frost flowers forming on certain living plants. Two species are commonly called frostweed.

[@regular-joe]

Thank you for the ample and well chosen photos to illustrate the topic! Seeing a lot more of that on Scishow lately - it's a great addition!

[@TheMexicanPlatypus]

Holy crap! My friends and I spotted hair ice in North Bend, WA just last month! It was everywhere on little branches and at first we thought it was actually hair until one of us touched it and it melted! Such a cool thing to learn about, it being so rare is also cool!

[@LawrenceKassab]

This reminds me of my play-doh toys when I was a kid

[@xenontesla122]

1:02 The effect starts to wear off when “ice Oliver Brown” begins to form.

[@elizabethtorres3491]

I always feel so much smarter after watching these videos 😁🐩🖖

[@Mae_is_gae]

"a less attractive shapeless clump" oh hey it's me

[@princessbuttercup8954]

I had some spoiled food in my fridge that grew hair. It looked like Albert Einstein's hair. It was pretty gross.

[@arthas640]

You wouldnt make a very good salesman; that food didnt _spoil_ you just managed to farm some hair in your refrigerator and got some bonus fiber out of the arrangement!

[@rawhide303]

I was on a hike a few years back and we came across this a few times and were very confused what it was

[@Neo2266.]

Jessticles Why didn’t you try to lick it?

[@rawhide303]

@@Neo2266. I thought it was a fungus and I haven't had good experience with recreational fungi.

[@Neo2266.]

Jessticles Good answer XD

[@samhaines8228]

Beautiful! the phenomenon and the process behind it

[@Altorin]

Huh. I guessed what it was and how it worked and I was basically right I AM A SCIENCE!!!

[@AmberAmber]

😊😂🤣❤❤❤❤

[@CloudHater]

actually found some of that a few years ago. nice to know the process more exactly, though it was pretty much what i expected.

[@RomanNardone]

Another weird form of ice: Google needle ice. Similar concept but it's just through the soil rather than wood.

[@rndeto]

Thank you! I've seen needle ice for years and knew it was special but never researched it because I didn't know it's name. This helps a lot!

[@Jp-ue8xz]

I have to admit this was a completely unexpected explanation to the phenomena. Makes me happy :)

[@RaExpIn]

I didn't know about it, until I saw it in a forest. I was amazed that it was ice and had not melted even though it was above 0°C. I even made a video about it, back then. :)

[@RapiDEraZeR]

I've seen and touched these on a hike in a western german forest with my girlfriend and her parents. Very interesting and I'm glad there's a video on this explaining it because we were baffled, lol.

[@farmthecorn5652]

i remember when olivia hosted her first video and everyone hated her but now people love her lmao

[@Seadalgo]

When Veritasium posted his video on ice cube spikes years ago I had never seen the phenomenon, aside from shallow birdbaths that I wasn't sure if it was due to rapid freezing in the wind or ice expansion. This presumably more rare phenomenon, however, I've seen pretty regularly

[@vinniejudilla3921]

Probably makes a great snowball

[@LawrenceKassab]

Olivia is so darn cool!

[@laurieparis2203]

Nature is amazing!🌱

[@denzelsugayan432]

When tress gets more hair than my face

[@TimmMix]

I saw these hairs years ago! And took some photos as well

[@Kramlets]

This video really makes me want to run my hand through it to see how it feels.

[@linefortier8595]

Awesome, wonderful...And very interesting! Thanks.

[@jerelull2619]

Just HAd to say YOUR hair looks great, Olivia.

[@rhijulbec1]

THAT IS SO SUPER COOL! get it? super (space) cool? ~I know but it amuses me. 😝

[@pamelapilling6996]

I have seen this. The hair ice was fascinating.

[@collectingonthecheap56353]

I have seen this a few times. Pretty cool in person.

[@WWZenaDo]

I've seen pix of this forming on dead flowers with somewhat heavier stems, too.

[@jeffwei]

I think those are "frost flowers," a different but related phenomenon

[@charanth182]

I started this video going "what do you mean it's really rare?"... Oh wait you just described my winters.

[@lexvegers242]

0:19: it does need the help of a fungus, I suppose. Btw: nice topic. Thanks, Scishow.

[@ImpeccableWizard]

I Live at Latitude 59° North and have seen this phenomenon quite a lot of times.

[@valkyriemaiden9593]

We get ice like this along my driveway in the red clay sometimes. It's not quite as fine as hair, but maybe a similar concept of how it forms.

[@jeffwei]

Yes that's "needle ice," a separate but similar phenomenon

[@probro53]

Saw the video and instantly remembered a peculiar plant that was a flower, but it's pedals were made of ice. Essentially a frost flower

[@AndromedaCripps]

Where I live we experience large spans of time where every day is between 30-35 F in the winter, and we're pretty far north, so I was really excited to go looking for hairy trees!! But then I found out that were about 3 degrees too far south for the effect to occur 😭

[@jeffwei]

According to the comments here, many are reporting it both north and south of the stated latitudes, so keep on the lookout!

[@multiverse45]

I love this girl

I live above the 45th parallel and haven't seen temperatures below 0°C in quite a while... This morning's low: 7°C.

[@swingloveEKL]

1:25 for super awesome time lapse!

[@EverythingScience]

It's pretty wild what nature will do

[@samdavies6404]

Really wish you explained why it's Gota be 45-55 degrease north

[@DeeEm2K]

The conditions are only available in those coordinates

[@SuperLoops]

i sat here wtfing at the title of this vid for ages thinking it was just word salad and it wasnt until the video actually started I understood what it meant and that it does make sense

[@AstronomyWales]

Cool I've seen this stuff. I figured it was some sort of fungi. I thought I had a picture but I've had a look with no luck.

[@varengrey7221]

Ah, they grow frost beards to keep warm.

[@shannonvanduyn978]

Is this why the trees look beautiful sometimes. Ive never gotten close enuff to investigate but it looks like more than just frost. But i noticed hair on branches the other day.

[@noel.8878]

There is tons where I live

[@Otek_Nr.3]

PLEASE tell me how it feels to touch!

[@wolvenar]

Ditto

[@wolvenar]

@@Otek_Nr.3 It's not much to actually feel. Your body heat almost immediately melts it if you use an ungloved hand. If with gloves it's like newly fallen very light easily blown around snow. The biggest thing you notice is how incredibly fragile it is. You destroy it's structure before you ever actually get to feel anything.

[@Otek_Nr.3]

@@wolvenar Too bad :(. Thank you for the info, tho :)

[@Y2Kvids]

I Know where you live in the latitude degrees

[@survivedandthriving]

I have seen that before; it was pretty interesting. Thank you for explaining how it happened. I have often wondered about it. Based on FB postings by naturalists and environmentalists and related groups in my area, this is phenomenon is not that uncommon here. Now, I know to send them to SciShow to see this video.

[@lyndsaybrown8471]

Super cool tree hair is super cool

[@derbersdiscoveries5938]

How is the air humid and just below freezing at the same time? the humidity should drop out long before that temp unless constantly supplied?

[@wolvenar]

Rare? It's all over our property this year.

[@stephenbrand5661]

You say this stuff only forms in forests between 45 and 55 degrees north of the equator but my parents live around 34 degrees north and I’ve seen it in the woods near their house.

[@adriennesplaylist]

i saw this for the first time last winter but had no idea what is was!

[@PaulsPubAndBrew]

Olivia has become a wonderful host in the last few videos. I have been critical of her for her long drawled out raspy voice in how she ends sentences for the past hundred videos or so. But I have to give credit where credit is due, she is really a great host and has only kept getting better.

[@AmberAmber]

This is soooooooo coooooo!!!!!!!

[@markdodd1152]

It's very interesting how it has to be a very specific environment to do so

[@lShishkaBerryl]

WOW! I live at 45° and have firewood with that fungus in my basement rn, I'm going to throw some outside and see what happens next time it's 0!

[@lordgarion514]

Wonder if there could be other such specific conditions that form other ice structures, that only happen in such small areas and such short times that no human has ever seen them.

[@limiv5272]

I live somewhere warm so I've never seen or heard of this type of ice. It's pretty cool, and oddly disturbing. Anybody here that has actually seen this?

[@3Authoress]

Are these ice hairs the same as or similar to frost flowers?

[@gunzakimbo]

"Called recrystallisation inhibitors" Hmm, I wonder what they do? Lol

[@mikel6668]

great video

[@sdfkjgh]

Me: **Lives in Southern California, where the temperatures never go below 55°F, and often top out at over 110°F**

[@AmberAmber]

And me? Jealous up in Canada.

[@Vercingetorix525]

Is this possible at just above 40°N in Appalachia? I feel like I've seen this before but cant think of where I would have seen it beyond 40°N or perhaps 41- 42°N at the most

[@wxlurker]

This is really cool, I wonder how it would feel if you touched it or would the body heat melt the fish ice?

[@abyssalfalcon8182]

can ya'll do an episode on jelly fungus please?

[@miriam3848]

We have a lot of hair ice in Estonia this year. In Estonian it's called fairy hair

[@michaelelbert5798]

Wow ! That's so cool ! Mikey likey.

[@JoelFeila]

no wonder I have never heard of this. I'm more then 10 degrees to far south

[@raptorhart]

We get this in SE alaska!

[@bitsnpieces11]

I wonder if this is where Tolkien got the name "TreeBeard" for a character in TLoR.

[@Ganara426]

Omg yeah...

[@dshe8637]

Or maybe from the plant commonly called 'Old Man's Beard'?

[@-fedgoy-3547]

"This weird white stuff look like a fungus, but it's snot!"

[@julian-io5wl]

Wow I saw this in a forest in Bavaria .

[@Ms12369]

BUT WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE?? I MUST KNOW!!!

[@johnfarris6152]

Not what I expected.

[@nameless5646]

I actually came across these about a month ago.

[@acronolozki]

forbidden wig

[@dunmermage]

Some call me Treebeard.

[@ThingEngineer]

I wonder if the hair ice actually serves a purpose for the fungus.

[@stratussol2475]

looks nice

[@callumdawes7656]

why does hair ice only grow between latitude 45-55 degrees north?

[@REHANKHAN-en5zn]

How does it feel to touch?

[@jocaleb0236]

I think it’s too cold here for that to form so rip

[@MtnTow]

Put a tick near it. Or snow fleas. See it they think its hair and if so, does the fungi absorb the animal?

[@timmcdaniel6193]

Verbesina virginica, one of the plants with common name frostweed, can do this too, or something very like. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (now a division of the University of Texas) at www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=VEVI3 lists some plants that do this. "Similar phenomena include the formation of ice crystals in loose soils, known variously as ice needles, frost column, kammeis (German), or pipkrake (Swediah) and the formation of ice crystals on dead (especially rotten) tree branches, known in German as haareis and in English as hair ice, silk frost or cotton candy frost." It also points to a couple of other web sites. I'm not sure why they distinguish the various ways or places, when (if I'm reading it right) they're all doing supercooled water and ice at a surface.

[@karlnowakowski7866]

Is this like ice needles that grow from the ground

[@AlabasterJazz]

Why does the effect require 45-55 deg North latitude?

[@kylestanley7843]

This feels like some serious Monster Hunter potential to me. Capcom, take notes.

[@CanuckMonkey13]

What was the reason why this can only happen between 45°N-55°N? Did I miss the explanation somewhere in the video? This seems to me to be a very odd restriction, as none of the processes described (or other limitations on the process) would seem to require this. EDIT: Is it because the _Exidiopsis effusa_ only lives in that range? That would make sense I suppose!