Some say it's not possible for a snowflake to develop twelve branches on it's own, some say it only occurs when two 6-sided snowflakes collide. I don't know the veracity of those claims, but I have read that that six-branched flakes comprise some 0.1% of all snowflakes, and twelve-sided are even rarer still. I've seen very, very few.
This flake's 'extra' six branches look to be almost identical to the rest of the branches, which leads me to think they were all formed at the same time. Nature won't tell, she keeps her secrets.
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