It is difficult to distinguish visually from the other members of the pyroxene group. Color is usually colorless to pale yellow. Luster is vitreous to resinous. Diaphaneity is transparent. Crystal Habits include radiating prismatic crystals to 3mm.
Fracture is uneven to conchoidal.
Hardness is 6. Streak is white to grayish-white. Associated Minerals include albite, calcite and microcline. Named in 1819 after M.A. Ludwig Hedenberg, Swedish chemist and coworker of Berzelius, who analyzed and described the mineral.