This crystal habit is classic for the garnet minerals. Spessartine is formed in manganese rich metamorphic enviroments and in some granitic pegmatites. Spessartine is somewhat rare but occassionally will accompany other minerals and make a nice accessory mineral to an outstanding mineral specimen.
Color is orange, reddish brown, brown, pink and yellow.
Luster is vitreous. Transparency crystals are transparent to translucent. But more commonly is found as the 24 sided trapezohedron. Combinations of these forms are common and sometimes the rare faces of the hexoctahedron, a 48 sided crystal habit that rarely is seen by itself, can also combine with these other forms making very attractive, complex and multifaceted crystals. Massive and granular occurrences are also seen.