Rhodochrosite is also called raspberry spar. The manganese content gives it a rosy pink color, even in its rare clear crystals. This specimen displays the mineral in its banded habit, but it also takes the botryoidal habit (see them in the Gallery of Mineral Habits). The crystals of rhodochrosite are mostly microscopic. Rhodochrosite is far more common at rock and mineral shows than it is in nature.
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