I went out very early in search of frost flowers. Here's the best one I found:
Frost flowers are wildings, outdoor growths created by humidity in the starlight... Pure ice crystals, they look like tufts of snowy feathers. Frost flowers, like hoar frost, are fragile. --Hal Borland
From Wikipedia:
The formation of frost flowers, also known as "ice flowers," is apparently dependent on a freezing weather condition occurring when the ground is not already frozen. The sap in the stem of the plants will expand, causing long, thin cracks to form along the length of the stem. Water is then drawn through these cracks via capillary action and freezes upon contact with the air. As more water is drawn through the cracks it pushes the thin ice layers further from the stem, causing a thin "petal" to form.
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