Crystal Habits Explained: Cubes, Prisms, Rhombohedra, Clusters & More

Crystal habit describes the external shape a mineral commonly develops as it grows. Learning a few habits makes mineral identification and collecting much easier.

Cubic

Fluorite commonly forms cubes with square faces meeting at right angles. Our purple Mexican fluorite is a clear example.

Prismatic

Quartz and tourmaline frequently form elongated prisms. Quartz commonly ends in pointed terminations, while tourmaline often shows strong longitudinal striations.

Rhombohedral and scalenohedral

Calcite can form rhombohedral crystals and sharp scalenohedral forms, sometimes called dogtooth calcite.

Clusters

Many specimens consist of numerous intergrown crystals rather than one isolated crystal. Clusters are especially common in quartz and calcite.

Compare examples in our fluorite, quartz, calcite and tourmaline collections.