Table of Mineral Habits

Table Habit

Habit	Habit Description
Acicular	Slender and rigid, like a needle (e.g. stibnite).
Amorphous	No crystalline form or imitative shape.
Anhedral Grains	Granular minerals without the expression of crystal shapes
Arborescent	"Tree like" growths of branched systems (e.g. silver).
Bladed	Aggregates of thin lath-like crystals (e.g. kyanite).
Blocky	Crystal shape tends to be equant (e.g. feldspars).
Blocky - Rhombohedral	Crystal shape resembles rhombohedrons.
Botryoidal	"Grape-like" rounded forms (e.g.. malachite).
Capillary	Very slender and long, like a thread or hair (e.g. millerite).
Cleaveable	Easily cleaved into fragments.
Cog-wheel	Generally six sided twinned crystals forming Cog-Wheel shapes
Colloform	Forming from a gel or colloidal mass.
Columnar	Forms columns
Comb	Drusy layers deposited on top of each other to produce a toothed structure (e.g. amethyst)
Compact	Occurs as a compact mass.
Concretionary	Rounded massive fine-grained materials.
Cruciform	Twinned tabular crystals with a cross-like outline.
Cryptocrystalline	Occurs as crystals too small to distinguish with the naked eye.
Crystalline - Coarse	Occurs as well-formed coarse sized crystals.
Crystalline - Fine	Occurs as well-formed fine sized crystals.
Crystalline - Poor	Occurs primarily as crudely formed crystals.
Cylindrical	Shaped like a cylinder.
Deliquescent	Crystals absorb water from the air and melt or otherwise deteriorate.
Dendritic	Branching "tree-like" growths of great complexity (e.g. pyrolusite).
Disseminated	Occurs in small, distinct particles dispersed in matrix.
Divergent	Crystals radiate from a center without producing stellar forms.
Druse	Crystal growth in a cavity which results in numerous crystal tipped surfaces.
Earthy	Dull, clay-like texture with no visible crystalline affinities, (e.g. howlite).
Efflorescences	Crystals covering matrix, generally produced from transpiro-evaporation.
Encrustations	Forms crust-like aggregates on matrix.
Euhedral Crystals	Occurs as well-formed crystals showing good external form.
Fibrous	Crystals made up of fibers.
Foliated	Two dimensional platy forms.
Globular	Spherical, or nearly so, rounded forms (e.g. wavellite).
Granular	Generally occurs as anhedral to subhedral crystals in matrix.
Lamellar	Thin laminae producing a lamellar structure.
Liquid	Occurs as a liquid at room temperatures.
Mammillary	Larger "breast-like" rounded forms resembling botryoidal (e.g. malachite).
Massive	Uniformly indistinguishable crystals forming large masses.
Massive - Fibrous	Distinctly fibrous fine-grained forms.
Massive - Granular	Common texture observed in granite and other igneous rock.
Massive - Lamellar	Distinctly foliated fine-grained forms.
Micaceous	Platy texture with "flexible" plates.
Mossy	Like moss in form or appearance.
Nodular	Tuberose forms having irregular protuberances over the surface.
Nuggets	Irregular lumps produced by stream transport of malleable metals.
Oolitic	< 3mm rounded spherical grains.
Pistolitic	> 3mm rounded spherical grains.
Platey	Sheet forms (e.g. micas).
Plumose	"Mica-like" minerals forming aggregates of plume-like forms.
Porcelainous	Fine-grained, translucent massive material like broken china
Prismatic	Crystals Shaped like Slender Prisms (e.g. tourmaline).
Pseudo Cubic	Crystals show a cubic outline.
Pseudo Hexagonal	Crystals show a hexagonal outline.
Pseudo Octohedral	Crystals show an octohedral outline.
Pseudo Orthorhombic	Crystals show an orthorhombic shape.
Pseudo Rhombohedral	Crystals show a rhombohedral outline.
Pseudo Tetragonal	Crystals show a tetragonal shape.
Pseudomorphous	Occurs in the form of another mineral.
Pulverulent	Forms a loose, poorly-coherent powdery mass.
Pyramidal	Crystals are shaped like pyramids.
Radial	Crystals radiate from a center without producing stellar forms (e.g. stibnite)
Reniform	"Kidney like" in shape (e.g.. hematite).
Reticulate	Fibers or columns cross in "Net-like" crystalline growths (e.g. cerrusite).
Scales	Morphology like fish scales.
Skeletal	Crystals form crude outlines with missing faces.
Spherical	Spherical, rounded aggregates.
Stalactitic	Shaped like pendant columns as stalactites or stalagmites (e.g. calcite).
Stellate	Occurs as spherical, radial aggregates radiating from a "star" like point.
Striated	Faces have parallel lines (e.g. plagioclase).
Subhedral Crystals	Occurs as crystals that tend to exhibit a recognizable crystal shape.
Tabular	Form dimensions are thin in one direction.
Twinning Common	Crystals are usually twinned.
Unknown	Unknown.
Waxy	Looks like candle wax.
Wedge shaped	Crystals shaped like a wedge.
Wheat Sheaf	Bundle shaped aggregates resembling wheat sheafs after hand reaping wheat.

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