Its hexagonal crystals display some interesting color zoning, with alternating colorless and yellow or light and dark brown zones.
Color ranges from white to pale pink to beige brown, pale to apple-green and colorless.
Luster is vitreous to pearly. Diaphaneity is translucent to opaque. Crystal Habits include sharp curved rhombohedra or as zoned short hexagonal prisms and plates to 12mm. Fracture is conchoidal. Streak is colorless to white, grayish and greenish.