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Unusual fluffy ice sprouts in Loch Ness woods

BBC The ice looks like white candy floss. The formation is on the ground on a layer of brown leaves.BBC
The formations are known as hair ice

Unusual fluffy ice has been spotted in woodland on the shores of Loch Ness.

The phenomenon known as hair ice, frost flowers or frost beard only forms under specific conditions.

The ice looks like individual strands of white hair. The formation is on the ground on a layer of brown leaves.
The ice forms on humid winter nights

The crystals sprout on humid winter nights from moist, rotting wood that have a particular fungus - Exidiopsis effusa.

The fungus is needed for a process called ice segregation which creates the delicate, thin "hairs" of ice.

The woodland on Aldourie Castle Estate is near Dores, just south of Inverness.

The ice looks like white candy floss. The formation is on the ground on a layer of brown leaves with small, broken branches covered in lichen.
The fluffy ice was spotted in woodland near Dores in the Highlands
The ice looks like white candy floss stuck to a stick. The formation is on the ground on a layer of brown leaves.
A particular fungus is needed to help the process of forming hair ice
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