Fly count today and frost flowers ...

We made our first F2 fly count today in Genetics.  We have F2 flies from a sex-linked cross and a dihybrid autosomal cross.  We will count again on Thursday.  Tomorrow some work in the book over the history of DNA discovery.  We will miss class on Friday due to an assembly.

We finished up our study of vertebrates today in Selected Topics and tomorrow will start our review and work on some bird identification.

Computer science is hard at work on their last set of Microsoft Visual BASIC problems ... decision statements, random number generation, invisible buttons, timers and animation.

Raining here this evening. First basketball game of the season tomorrow evening ... good luck to both teams!

A link for weather in Allen County on Kentucky Mesonet

http://www.kymesonet.org/#!sctv

Also,  local Allen County resident,  former state climatologist and my wife's Uncle Glen has pictures posted on NWS - Louisville ... link below and sample picture.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lmk/?n=frost_flowers




From website above ...


Frost flowers are thin layers (perhaps credit card thickness) of ice that are extruded through slits from the stems of white or yellow wingstem plants, among others. Their formation requires freezing air temperature, soil that is moist or wet but not frozen, and a plant's stem that has not been previously frozen. (Practically speaking, a once per year event, although not all individuals produce frost flowers on the first day of good conditions). The water in the plant's stem is drawn upward by capillary action from the ground. It expands as it freezes and splits the stem vertically and freezes on contact with the air. As more water is drawn from ground through the split, it extrudes a paper thin ice layer further from the stem. The length of the split determines if the frost flower is a narrow or wide ribbon of ice. It curls unpredictably as it is extruded, perhaps from unequal friction along the sides of the split, to form "petals". These flowers, no two of which are alike, are fragile and last only until they sublimate or melt.

To find them, look for tall weeds, especially in locations that are seldom mowed. They seem to like the same habitat as purple ironweed, blackberries, and wingstems, with the actual frost flowers forming on the wingstems.