Specimen · N°012 · Ice
Crystallanthus altaicus
Ice-clad Flower
At dawn, the flower is sealed in glass-like ice.
FOUND 49.5°N 87.5°E · Highland steppe of the Altai Mountains, Siberia · ✝ EX · Last seen 1989
At dawn, the flower is sealed in glass-like ice.
A small perennial about 7–12 cm tall, its slender dark-green leaves clad in frost. Each plant bears a single violet-blue bell-shaped flower; the night's cold wraps the whole bloom in a thin clear shell of ice, which melts within hours in the morning sun.
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At dawn, the flower is sealed in glass-like ice.
It melts only in the few hours after the morning sun.
The highland steppe of the Altai, Siberia.
At a dawn frozen by radiative cooling, the Ice-clad Flower appears.
Its slender dark-green leaves are wholly clad in frost.
At their centre, a single violet-blue bell-shaped flower has opened.
