Frost Flowers?

I've seen those viral emails showing amazing sculpture-like crystals called frost flowers, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it phenomenon where the atmospheric conditions have to be just so. They're gorgeous and rare, so you can imagine my excitement when I thought I found some in my own back yard during this past week's snow.

A little research tells me frost flowers may not be what I have here: The internet seems to think they only appear in certain areas of the US (Washington isn't one of them), and are actually attached to certain kinds of plant stems.

The patches I found came straight out of the ground, in an area of our back yard that is straight up dirt/mud (stop judging - we have moss issues in this part of the world). The vertical crystals had even absorbed a good deal of the soil from which they were rising.

So what do you think? What are these pretty little growths I found? They are long gone now that the temp has warmed and the rain has returned, but I'm glad I've got 'em on digital film. Nature is pretty fascinating!