(NOTE: I made an error when I corrected this Notebook yesterday. "Phenomena" is plural. "Phenomenon" is singular. I mixed them up. 違いました！本当にごめんあさい！I hope I didn't cause any confusion for anyone. Sorry!)
Frost flower
How What do you call this phenomenon? We call them it Shimo-Bashira, which literally means 'Frost column' in Japanese.Some places in Tokyo, it's already frost flowers can already be seen. I took this picture near my workplace.
This phenomenon occurs in the plants of the mint family. After the plant has withered, moisture in its stem expands and freezes and a frost flower is formed.
One of my colleague who is familiar with a the phenomenon of frost flower said that frost flowers in this picture look unnatural because there is too much ice on it them*. They are planted Keiskea japonica**, so maybe they may be a little bit different from wild ones. I agree with her. For me, they look like a muscle-bound man. So I named them muscle-bound frost flower siblings***.
This is very interesting. I've never heard of this phenomena, even though I have probably seen it many times. I looked it up. In English it is called "Needle Ice" or sometimes ""frost columns" or "frost pillars." There's a German word, "kammeis," which means "comb ice."
* Or "too much ice on the stems"
** Is the Keiskea japonica flower always white? If so, that's an interesting coincidence, because I learned from the Internet that this flower is called "Snow White." 日本語で何と言う？
*** This is a very funny image. Very clever. The word "sibling" can seem a little formal or clinical. I think I would call them "Muscle-bound Frost Flower Sisters."
霜柱について教えてくれてありがとうございました。
