It is opaque and brilliantly vitreous. It also is the only black mineral found with the typically white or pale colored zeolites. This sets it off and makes it easy to see the normally small crystals among the other minerals in a zeolitic pocket. Babingtonite is somewhat scarce and its presence in a specimen tends to raise the value of the specimen considerably. Babingtonite, although scarce, is found in almost all rare mineral collections.
Color is almost always black to dark green.
Luster is vitreous. Crystals are generally opaque but thin crystals or splinters can be translucent. Cleavage is good in one direction and perfect in another, these are pinacoidal but are at near right angles to each other forming rectangular prisms. Fracture is uneven to subconchoidal. Hardness is 5.