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Dendritic Quartz Mineral & Gemstone

Dendritic Quartz with it's tree like, fern shapes and branches is a very interesting and pleasing gemstone. However there really isn't too much one can say about Dendritic Quartz. The Process if fairly simple. Although the dendritic pattern appears as a fossilized plant, it is really inorganic manganese oxide.

When moisture and iron mix, the result is
oxidation, better known as rust. Oxidation
is an every day occurrence. It even happened
in gemstones. Traces of moisture and iron or
manganese were trapped inside quartz, which
produced stains resembling trees or branches
called dendrites. The word Dendrite comes from
the Greek word “dendron” meaning tree. Hence
the name Dendritic or Dendrite Quartz.

The stains are found in microscopic fissures that cause them to branch out like tree limbs or fern like inclusions. Of course in nature no two things are alike, making each gem one of a
kind . Quartz can have inclusions of other minerals also, including, chrysocolla, azurite, malachite, chlorite or goethite. These inclusions have the ability to tint their host red, orange, yellow, green, blue and black. Dendrites can occur in other gems as well, including opal and beryl.

Dendrites are most often formed by manganese oxide or manganese oxides. Some of the other manganese oxides that form dendrites, are in the hollandite group of manganese oxides. They are coronadite, cryptomelene and hollandite. Two other manganese oxide minerals that form dendrites are romanechite and todorokite.

Like most included quartz, the primary sources of Dendritic Quartz are Brazil and Africa. The ones we have are from the Golconda Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

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