frost

Frost on the windshield two nights running. Not frostrósir, frost-roses, just frost. At most frostmosi, a tiny layer of white moss. Or some species of frost-lichen? Frostfléttur -- I like the shape of the word.

Lichen is not a plant, not even a single organism. It is a symbiosis between fungus and algæ or bacteria. The fungus alone cannot photosynthesize, while its symbiont can. Maybe in frostfléttar that part is played not by a photobiont but by something that synthesizes glucose from the cold itself. Imagine tiny cells with leukophyll and leukoplasts carrying out not Light Reactions and Dark Reactions but Cold Reactions.

It is a shame to have to scrape it away. It would wither away regardless as the glass warmed up. But it will grow back during the night.