Mila'sExotic Plants & CuriositiesA living collection by Luminary OdditiesThe mineral atlas
An illustrated reference to crystals, stones, and mineral materials: their earth stories, identities, human histories, and attributed traditions.
105 specimens · Geology, history, and attributed traditions
The six sided prism
Quartz, crystalline silica (SiO2).
Rock crystal is colorless, visibly crystalline quartz. A clear point may contain white clouds, internal cracks or mineral inclusions and still be quartz. Its transparent interior and outer growth faces tell different parts of its history. A smooth polished tower exposes the interior while replacing the natural surface with a manufactured shape.
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The rose cloud
Pink massive quartz / silicon dioxide
Typical rose quartz is a translucent pink mass with irregular surfaces and a softly clouded interior. Pale blush, richer rose color and a carved shape describe appearance and workmanship. The usual material does not grow as the generic pointed crystal sometimes shown in decorative imagery.
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The violet chamber
Purple quartz.
Amethyst is purple quartz, from pale lavender to deep violet. Pale or colorless zones can share a crystal with dark violet areas. A geode contains a cavity lined by many crystals rather than one enormous amethyst crystal. Rough clusters and polished banded pieces reveal different parts of that architecture.
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The golden prism
Yellow to orange quartz.
Citrine is yellow-to-orange quartz. A honey crystal and an orange cluster can share quartz identity while having different color histories. The defining material questions are what mineral is present and whether the current color arose geologically or through treatment.
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The smoke within
Brown to near-black quartz.
Smoky quartz ranges from a gray-brown veil to almost black. A thin edge may transmit light even when the centre looks opaque. Morion is an established name for very dark material. The smoky color is within the quartz, distinct from an iron-colored surface coating.
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A meeting of colors
Quartz combining amethyst-purple and citrine-yellow/orange zones.
Ametrine combines purple and yellow-orange zones within one quartz crystal. It is not two unrelated minerals physically joined together. A cutting orientation can create a clean division in a finished gem, while rough reveals a more complex arrangement.
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A landscape enclosed
Quartz containing other minerals or visible growth features.
Included quartz is a comparison category for quartz containing visible minerals, fluids or growth features. Gold needles, black rods and green gardens are not one inclusion species. The host provides a window, but naming what appears inside requires more than recognizing an evocative pattern.
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A glint in green
Aventurescent quartz-rich material with reflective inclusions.
Aventurine is a quartz-rich material with reflective inclusions producing scattered glitter. Green is familiar, but red, orange, blue and yellow retail materials also occur. Its small glints differ from the broad colored flash of some feldspars and the single moving band of tiger’s eye.
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The moving band
Chatoyant quartz-rich material associated with fibrous amphibole textures.
Tiger’s eye displays a silky band of reflected light that moves as the viewing angle changes. Gold-brown material is familiar, with blue material and mixed tiger-iron rocks offering useful comparisons. This directional optical effect is chatoyancy.
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Broken ribbons
Trade material with chatoyant fibrous inclusions in microcrystalline quartz.
Pietersite is a trade material with turbulent blue, gold and brown chatoyant patches. The fibers appear to turn in different directions rather than maintain tiger’s eye’s orderly band. This is a silica-rich inclusion material, not a separately approved mineral species.
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The nested horizon
Patterned, commonly banded chalcedony, a fine-grained silica material.
Agate is patterned fine-grained silica, commonly recognized by visible bands and some translucency. A slice can expose repeated outlines around a former cavity. Locality names and visual pattern names are useful for comparison, but do not create additional mineral species.
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Pale blue lace
Pale blue-and-white banded chalcedony.
Blue lace agate combines pale blue chalcedony with white lace-like bands. The soft blue and repeated waves distinguish its visual character from an unbanded blue tumble. A small polished piece may show only a fragment of a much larger pattern.
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A mineral garden
Chalcedony with mineral inclusions resembling moss or branches.
Moss and tree agate contain mineral patterns that resemble small gardens or branches. The resemblance is descriptive: no plant needs to be present. Tree-agate retail material often emphasizes green marks against a paler field, while a more translucent background can make moss-like inclusions appear deeper.
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Branches in stone
Chalcedony with branching mineral inclusions.
Dendritic agate contains branching inclusions in fine-grained silica. Dark twigs against a white, gray or translucent field create miniature landscapes. Dendritic describes a growth pattern, not a fossil tree or a single chemical species.
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The ember pebble
Orange to reddish chalcedony.
Carnelian is orange-to-red chalcedony, commonly translucent at a thin edge and smooth or waxy in its polished appearance. Its fine texture makes it suitable for small carvings and engraved surfaces rather than large visible pointed crystals.
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A waxen blue
Microcrystalline/fibrous silica aggregate; includes many named gem varieties.
Chalcedony is a fine-grained silica aggregate, not one large visible quartz crystal. In narrower gem usage the name often denotes relatively even blue, white or gray material, while the wider family includes many patterned varieties such as agate and carnelian.
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The apple green field
Nickel-colored green chalcedony.
Chrysoprase is green chalcedony, valued for apple-green color and gentle translucency. It lacks aventurine’s conspicuous scattered glitter and is not jade simply because it is green. An even surface and a mottled interior can share the same broad material identity.
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Red on green
Green chalcedony/jasper material with red markings.
Classic bloodstone places red marks against a deep green silica-rich background. Heliotrope is an established alternative name. The red spots suggested blood to observers, but they are mineral coloration rather than blood or fossil organic matter.
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Parallel strata
Parallel-banded chalcedony; sardonyx includes sard-colored bands.
Onyx and sardonyx are layered chalcedony materials. Straight or nearly parallel contrasting bands offer a carver a deliberate relationship between image and ground. Sardonyx includes reddish-brown layers; the retail name onyx also needs separation from softer banded carbonate.
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The opaque field
Opaque, impure, fine-grained silica-rich material; retail use of the name is broader.
Jasper is a broad name for opaque silica-rich material, usually patterned or colored by fine components. Red, yellow, brown and contrasting bands make the category visually expansive. The shop use of jasper stretches beyond strict silica identity, so a pattern name needs its own material explanation.
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A field of orbs
A lapidary trade name associated with orbicular silica-rich material from Madagascar.
Ocean jasper is a trade category associated with orbicular silica-rich material from Madagascar. Rounded spots, concentric outlines, cavities and color fields create its characteristic visual rhythm. The circles are mineral patterns, not proof of a specific numbered vein or coastal collection story.
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Ochre and wine
Silicified radiolarian sedimentary material from Western Australia.
Mookaite is an Australian decorative rock with cream, ochre, red and wine-colored fields. Its opaque polish can resemble familiar jasper, but the material’s specific rock context is more useful than treating the name as a new mineral crystal.
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The turquoise lattice
Green to blue-green microcline feldspar.
Amazonite is green-to-blue-green microcline, a potassium feldspar. Blocky fragments and pale streaks give it a different architecture from green chalcedony. Its color does not identify jade or turquoise, even when a polished shape resembles those stones.
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A flash beneath gray
A plagioclase feldspar variety known for labradorescence.
Labradorite is plagioclase feldspar, frequently with a gray body and a blue, green or gold flash. The broad flash changes with angle and lighting. A motionless photograph can show a vivid view or a subdued one without either representing the entire appearance.
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A floating sheen
Adularescent feldspar material, classically intergrown alkali feldspars.
Moonstone is a gem designation for feldspar with a floating, billowing sheen called adularescence. White, peach, gray and dark trade forms share a luminous appearance but require material-specific identification. The sheen is an optical structure, not light emitted by the stone.
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Copper light
Feldspar gem material with reflective inclusions, sometimes showing aventurescence.
Sunstone is a feldspar gem with reflective inclusions producing glitter or a warm shimmering appearance. A bright orange body is not its only form. The inclusion type and feldspar composition vary among documented sources.
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Silver in the dark
Norwegian igneous rock rich in feldspar that can show blue-silver iridescence.
Larvikite is a dark coarse-grained igneous rock whose feldspar grains can flash silver-blue. A polished piece contains intergrown minerals; it is not one large labradorite crystal. Architectural slabs make the whole-rock texture especially easy to see.
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Striated towers
Borosilicate mineral supergroup / black tourmaline focus
Tourmaline is a chemically diverse borosilicate supergroup. Black striated prisms provide a familiar crystal-shop silhouette, but pink, green, blue and multicolored gems show a much wider range. Color names and mineral species answer different questions.
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Two mineral traditions
Jadeite jade and nephrite / a material umbrella
Jade is a gem-material name encompassing distinct tough aggregates, principally jadeite jade and nephrite. It is not defined simply by green color. White, lavender, dark and differently colored jade can all occur, and the mineral type should remain explicit whenever an example is identified.
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A veined green landscape
Serpentine-group minerals and serpentine-rich rock
Serpentine names a mineral group, while serpentinite is a rock dominated by serpentine minerals. Green carving material can include antigorite or lizardite, but a decorative photograph cannot establish its precise components. The group also includes fibrous chrysotile, making a species-level distinction consequential.
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The many faced seed
A group of related silicate minerals.
Garnet is a mineral group, not only a red gemstone. Equant crystals, massive material and orange or green gems show its breadth. Shared crystal structure links compositions that can differ substantially in chemistry and appearance.
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Olive light
Gem-quality olivine, usually magnesium-rich.
Peridot is gem-quality olivine, usually yellow-green through olive green. Rough can occur as grains in a darker volcanic host rather than a long pointed crystal. Its green appearance differs from many gems whose color chiefly depends on trace components.
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Sea blue columns
Blue to blue-green beryl.
Aquamarine is blue-to-blue-green beryl. Pale transparent prisms retain an architectural hexagonal form; an opaque matrix piece can look quite different from a finished gem. Sea-colored imagery describes its appearance rather than its place of formation.
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The green beryl chamber
Green beryl in the gemological emerald range.
Emerald is the green gem variety of beryl. Visible inclusions and fractures can be part of its geological record, while matrix retains relationships lost in a faceted stone. Not every pale green beryl is automatically identified as emerald.
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Blush beryl
Pink to orange-pink beryl.
Morganite is pink-to-peach beryl, often pale enough that a larger mass displays its color more strongly. A transparent gem and a rough architectural crystal show different aspects of the same mineral framework. It is neither rose quartz nor pink glass.
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The beryl family
Beryl family material outside the dedicated aquamarine, emerald and morganite pages.
The extended beryl family connects colorless goshenite, golden heliodor and green beryl with better-known aquamarine, emerald and morganite. These gem names usually sort color appearances within one mineral species. The comparison reveals how shared structure can support different visual identities.
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A paired spodumene story
Colored varieties of spodumene.
Kunzite and hiddenite are gem varieties of spodumene. Pink-to-violet kunzite and green hiddenite share elongated crystal forms and a lithium-bearing pyroxene framework. The paired names do not mean their color causes or spiritual associations are identical.
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Blue blades
Aluminium silicate mineral, polymorphous with andalusite and sillimanite.
Kyanite is an aluminium silicate frequently recognized by long blue blades. Fans, intergrown blades and dark aggregates express habit rather than a new mineral species. Color varies, so blue is characteristic but not a complete identification.
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The turning violet
Gem-quality cordierite, often violet-blue and strongly pleochroic.
Iolite is gem-quality cordierite, often violet-blue with strongly different colors in different viewing directions. This property is pleochroism. The changing hue is not the same phenomenon as a rainbow flash produced by layered feldspar.
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A cross section
Andalusite; chiastolite is the cross-patterned inclusion variety.
Andalusite is an aluminium silicate; chiastolite is its inclusion-patterned variety with a dark cross visible in a cut section. The internal cross is different from two whole crystals intersecting as a staurolite twin.
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Soft green clusters
Calcium aluminium silicate, often pale green and botryoidal.
Prehnite is a calcium aluminium silicate, often pale green with rounded or botryoidal surfaces. A polished mass can appear softly cloudy; dark associated crystals add a very different texture. Rounded habit does not identify every component inside a piece.
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Pistachio prisms
Calcium aluminium iron silicate in the epidote group.
Epidote is a calcium aluminium iron silicate often recognized by pistachio-green prisms. It also occurs as a component of mixed rocks. Naming epidote in a piece does not make every part of the host the same mineral.
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One family many colors
Zoisite mineral; tanzanite is blue-violet gem zoisite.
Zoisite is a calcium aluminium silicate with several familiar gem appearances. Blue-violet tanzanite, pink thulite and green ruby-bearing material belong in comparison, but a mixed rock is not one uniformly colored zoisite crystal.
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The corundum pair
Red and other colored gem varieties of corundum.
Ruby and sapphire are gem varieties of corundum, aluminium oxide. Ruby is red; other gem colors fall under sapphire. A matrix specimen, a transparent cut gem and an opaque star cabochon reveal different appearances of this shared mineral.
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A clear termination
Aluminium fluorine/hydroxyl silicate mineral.
Topaz is an aluminium silicate containing fluorine and hydroxyl, with colors extending beyond familiar commercial blue. Clear prisms and striated faces provide a more accurate rough silhouette than treating every specimen as a blue gem.
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The cubic garden
Calcium fluoride (CaF2).
Fluorite is calcium fluoride, often seen as cubes or color-zoned masses. Purple, green, yellow and blue can share one piece. A broken octahedron and a naturally grown cube have different origins of shape.
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Slanting planes
Calcium carbonate (CaCO3).
Calcite is calcium carbonate, appearing as clear cleavage fragments, pointed crystals, rounded growths and banded carving stone. One mineral supports far more shapes than the familiar tumble. A rhombohedral fragment is not a cube despite its regular-looking faces.
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A radiating star
A calcium-carbonate polymorph distinct from calcite.
Aragonite is calcium carbonate with a structure distinct from calcite. Star-like clusters, branches and banded masses show that one mineral can have many external forms. A radiating cluster is an aggregate rather than one simple pointed crystal.
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Clear plates and silken fibers
Hydrated calcium sulfate (CaSO4·2H2O).
Gypsum is hydrated calcium sulfate, with clear selenite, fibrous satin spar and fine-grained alabaster expressing very different textures. A clear plate and a silky wand can share a mineral species while deserving different variety labels.
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A quiet blue mass
Trade name for blue-grey massive anhydrite.
Angelite is a trade name for blue-gray massive anhydrite. Its soft-looking opaque surface differs from a clear celestine cluster. The sky-like color and angelic name are appearance and naming features rather than chemical identity.
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Pale blue geode light
Strontium sulfate (SrSO4).
Celestine is strontium sulfate, also commonly called celestite. Pale blue crystal clusters are familiar, but the mineral occurs in other colors. A cavity-lined cluster preserves a relationship between crystals and host rather than one giant solid gem.
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Heavy pale plates
Barium sulfate (BaSO4).
Barite, also spelled baryte, is barium sulfate. Broad plates, radiating groups and rose-like forms give it a wide visual range. Its substantial heft is a useful characteristic, but should not be replaced by a destructive test or guessed from an image.
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A blue green prism
A mineral-group name; much gem material is fluorapatite.
Apatite is a mineral-group name, not an identity assigned by blue color.
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Green concentric worlds
Copper carbonate hydroxide.
Malachite’s polished green ribbons are only one face of the mineral.
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Deep copper blue
Blue copper carbonate hydroxide.
Azurite is the blue copper carbonate hydroxide Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2.
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Copper blue in the matrix
Copper-bearing hydrated silicate material, often intermixed with other minerals.
Chrysocolla is a name to read with the host.
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A sky colored network
Hydrated copper aluminium phosphate.
Turquoise is hydrated copper aluminium phosphate, not a name for everything blue-green.
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Blue with white seams
A blue to variable-colored feldspathoid mineral.
Sodalite is a sodium-rich feldspathoid, Na8Al6Si6O24Cl2.
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Blue rock gold grains
A rock containing blue lazurite with variable calcite, pyrite and other minerals.
Lapis lazuli is a rock rather than one blue mineral species.
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A pale vein map
Calcium borosilicate hydroxide, commonly white with dark veining.
Howlite is calcium borosilicate hydroxide, Ca2B5SiO9(OH)5.
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Chalk white forms
Magnesium carbonate (MgCO3).
Magnesite is magnesium carbonate, MgCO3.
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Pink crossed by black
Manganese-rich silicate material, often pink with dark manganese oxides.
Rhodonite is a manganese-rich silicate.
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Rose colored bands
Manganese carbonate (MnCO3).
Rhodochrosite is manganese carbonate, MnCO3.
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Lavender mica pages
Field/trade name for lithium-rich micas, not one accepted mineral species.
Lepidolite is a field and trade name for lithium-rich micas, not one fixed mineral species.
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Green mica light
Chromium-bearing green muscovite variety.
Fuchsite is chromium-bearing green muscovite.
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Blue fibers in stone
Aluminium borosilicate, commonly encountered in quartz-rich material.
Dumortierite is an aluminium borosilicate.
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Violet silk currents
Complex silicate mineral usually sold as purple charoite-bearing rock.
Charoite is a complex silicate mineral, commonly presented as a purple charoite-bearing ornamental rock.
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Dense violet mosaic
A complex potassium-sodium lithium silicate mineral, often sold in mixed massive material.
Sugilite is a complex silicate containing potassium, sodium and lithium among other elements.
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Blue copper mixtures
A copper silicate hydroxide mineral, often present in blue-green mixed rocks.
Shattuckite is a copper silicate hydroxide, commonly appearing as blue aggregates rather than large solitary prisms.
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Small emerald green prisms
Hydrated copper silicate, often emerald green.
Dioptase is a hydrated copper silicate, CuSiO3·H2O.
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Blue rounded surfaces
Hydrated zinc silicate.
Hemimorphite is a hydrated zinc silicate, Zn4Si2O7(OH)2·H2O.
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The dark octahedron
Magnetic iron oxide, distinct from hematite.
Magnetite is an iron oxide, Fe3O4, distinct from hematite.
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Brass geometry
Iron sulfide (FeS2).
Pyrite is iron sulfide, FeS2, known for brassy metallic color and precise natural crystal geometry.
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An iridescent surface
A retail label commonly applied to iridescent copper-iron sulfides.
Peacock ore is a retail appearance label.
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Volcanic glass
Natural volcanic glass, not a crystalline mineral.
Obsidian is natural volcanic glass rather than a crystalline mineral species.
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A carbon rich rock
Name used for carbon-rich mineraloid and carbon-bearing rock from Karelia.
Shungite is used both for carbon-rich material and for associated carbon-bearing rocks, especially from Karelia.
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An organic black
Organic gem material derived from fossil wood, not obsidian or anthracite by default.
Jet is an organic gem derived from fossil wood, not obsidian and not automatically anthracite.
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Resin held in time
Fossilized resin, an organic gem rather than a crystalline mineral.
Amber is fossilized plant resin, an organic gem rather than a crystalline mineral.
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Wood made mineral
Fossil wood preserved by mineral infilling/replacement, often silica.
Petrified wood preserves a former organism through mineralization.
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A colony in cross section
Fossil coral material, sometimes replaced by silica.
Fossil coral is a biological fossil category whose present mineral composition varies.
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Life within sediment
Carbonate rock containing visible fossils.
Fossiliferous limestone contains preserved remains within carbonate rock.
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Cracks filled with time
Concretions with internal cracks and later mineral fillings.
Septarian describes a cracked concretion, not one mineral species.
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The vesicular surface
Broad retail name, usually for vesicular volcanic rock.
Lava stone is broad retail language, often for dark vesicular volcanic rock.
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A play of color
Hydrated silica material; precious opal shows play-of-color and common opal does not.
Opal is hydrated silica.
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Impact glass landscapes
Natural impact-generated glasses derived from terrestrial material.
Moldavite belongs among tektites: natural glasses made from terrestrial material during a major impact event.
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Green and salmon grains
Altered rock combining feldspar, epidote and commonly quartz.
Unakite is a mixed rock rather than one pink-green mineral.
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Dark spots pale ground
Spotted ornamental rock; analyzed trade samples contain a feldspar-quartz matrix with arfvedsonite-rich dark areas.
Dalmatian stone is a spotted decorative rock.
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Dark green circles
Green-and-black orbicular rhyolitic rock in the documented trade material.
Kambaba stone is a green-black decorative trade material.
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A volcanic color field
Silica-rich volcanic rock, with varied textures and mineral mixtures.
Rhyolite is a volcanic rock category, not one mineral species.
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A coarse indigo mosaic
Gabbro is a coarse-grained mafic igneous rock; indigo gabbro is a trade label.
Gabbro is a coarse-grained mafic igneous rock.
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Bronze fiber light
Bronzy-shimmering orthopyroxene material associated with the enstatite–ferrosilite series.
Bronzite is a familiar ornamental name for iron-bearing orthopyroxene material in the enstatite–ferrosilite range.
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A dark metallic sheen
Legacy name within the enstatite–ferrosilite series, retained in gem trade.
Hypersthene persists in ornamental trade although modern pyroxene classification does not treat it as one independent species.
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Small lights in dark rock
Iridescent amphibole-bearing metamorphic rock associated with Nuuk, Greenland.
Nuummite is a rock associated with anthophyllite and gedrite amphiboles, rather than one standalone mineral species.
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A radiating spray
Titanium-bearing silicate mineral with often radiating golden-brown blades.
Astrophyllite is a titanium-bearing silicate, often seen as golden-brown blades against a contrasting host.
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Blue black needles
Sodium-rich amphibole mineral commonly in alkaline igneous rocks.
Arfvedsonite is a sodium-rich amphibole mineral.
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Square light
A group of hydrous silicate minerals.
Apophyllite is a group name covering related hydrated silicate minerals.
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Sheaves and needles
A family of hydrated aluminosilicates; species differ.
Zeolites are a mineral family, not one pale crystal species.
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The clear wedge
Calcium borosilicate mineral.
Danburite is calcium borosilicate, CaB2(SiO4)2.
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Salt in cubes
Sodium chloride mineral, occurring in evaporite deposits.
Halite is the mineral sodium chloride, NaCl.
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A pale blue network
Blue pectolite trade material from the Dominican Republic.
Larimar is trade language for blue pectolite material from the Dominican Republic, not a separate mineral species.
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The eight faced gem
Magnesium aluminium oxide mineral.
Spinel is magnesium aluminium oxide, MgAl2O4.
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Crossed crystal forms
Iron-rich aluminium silicate, sometimes naturally twinned into cross-like forms.
Staurolite is an iron-rich aluminium silicate.
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Yellow black and honest names
Carbonate-rich Indonesian decorative rock, despite the common jasper label.
Bumblebee stone is a carbonate-rich mixed material, despite the common jasper trade name.
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Fire in silicon carbide
Silicon carbide (SiC); rare natural mineral, with laboratory-created material supplying the gem trade.
Moissanite deserves its own entry because its natural mineral identity and ordinary retail origin are easy to confuse.
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