The Verbesina plant is easy to grow and has dark green leaves and white flowers in the autumn. It thrives in dappled shade at the edges of woodlands, where its spreading rhizomes allow it to form large colonies. Each stem has soft, fleshy green flanges running longitudinally down its length. When winter weather brings ice, the stems exude water that freezes into fascinating shapes, giving the plant its common name, Frostweed. This plant is best suited for naturalized landscapes rather than formal ones.

The ice crystals formed on the stems of this and other plant species have been given many names, including ice ribbons, ice flowers, ice fringes, ice fingers, ice filaments, ice leaves, frost flowers, frost ribbons, frost freaks, frost beards, frost castles (Forrest M. Mims III http://www.forrestmims.org/gallery.html), crystallofolia (coined by Bob Harms at The University of Texas), rabbit ice and rabbit butter.