Why does water melt directly from ice into ordinary liquid water instead of forming a liquid crystal?

Water does not form a liquid crystal phase because it lacks the specific molecular geometry required to exhibit such behavior. Liquid crystals typically consist of large, rigid, and elongated (rodlike or disk-shaped) molecules. These shapes allow the molecules to maintain a degree of orientational order while remaining mobile, a characteristic that defines the liquid crystal state.12

In contrast, water molecules are small and simple, consisting of only three atoms. Because they lack the necessary structural complexity and anisotropy, water transitions directly from the rigid, ordered lattice of crystalline ice to an isotropic liquid upon melting. While water is a complex substance due to its hydrogen bonding, which creates short-range order in the liquid state, it does not possess the long-range orientational symmetry required to form a mesophase between the solid and liquid states.3214