‘Cotton candy’ spread across South Carolina fields was actually an ice phenomenon

What looked like tufts of cotton candy strewn across parks and fields in upstate of South Carolina on Thursday turned out to be a rare type of ice that grows like hair only when nature produces the perfect mix of fungus, moisture and freezing temperatures.

South Carolina State Parks officials posted a close-up of one of the ice formations on Facebook late Thursday, and identified it as hair ice.

It was found at the Musgrove Mill State Historic Site in in Greenville County, about 75 miles northwest of Columbia. The ice formed as an arctic air mass crossed the Carolinas, dropping temperatures into the 20s.

“This is due to the recent cold morning temps and moisture. This frost occurrence happens during humid winter nights when the temperature drops just below the freezing point,” said the post. “The textures and forms are a result of the fungus Exidiopsis effusa.”

Others photos soon appeared on Facebook from people saying they saw the same ice in other areas, including Westminster, S.C., where it was spread across a field.

“We call them frost flowers,” posted Kayla Tompkins with a photo.

“Looks like cotton candy,” added Barbara Stalls Edmonds.

The odd formations were first identified in 1918, when observers noted they mysteriously grew overnight and quickly vanished at dawn, reported LiveScience.com.

A 2015 study of the phenomenon noted a fungus on dead wood – specifically wood from broad-leaf trees – plays a key role in “shaping the ice hairs and preventing them from re-crystallization,” according to Biogeosciences.net.

Hair ice can take a variety of forms, from clusters of threads to puffs to silky hairs.