This is not the first time when scientists have revealed how the formation of the kind of hair ice that grows out of logs in the forest takes place. The researchers were walking through a forest in Switzerland when they stumbled across some hair ice; they decided to uncover the secret behind the ice formation in this peculiar shape.

Now, the researchers have found which kind of fungus was responsible for the ice grown this way. They reported their findings in the journal Biogeosciences.

“When we saw hair ice for the first time on a forest walk, we were surprised by its beauty. Sparked by curiosity, we started investigating this phenomenon, at first using simple tests, such as letting hair ice melt in our hands until it melted completely”, said Christian Mätzler of the University of Bern.

Alfred Wegener, known as originator of continental drift theory, was the first scientist to reveal that fungus is responsible for this phenomenon. However, a Swiss scientist named Gerhart Wagner and colleagues are the first to find which species of fungus was involved or how it caused their hair-like ice structures to form.

The researchers said Exidiopsis effuse is the fungus that stabilizes the thin hair of ice in part by preventing them from recrystallizing.

Mätzler said in a statement that wood can be seen having the same amount of ice with or without fungal activity. However, a crust-like structure is formed by ice without this activity.

For the study, the researchers analyzed samples of hair-ice-bearing wood collected in the winters of 2012, 2013 and 2014 in forests near Brachbach in western Germany.