Rutilated quartz

Rutilated quartz (also known as Venus' Hair Stone^[1]) is a variety of quartz which contains acicular (needle-like) inclusions of rutile.^[2] It is used for gemstones. These inclusions mostly look golden, but they also can appear silver, copper red or black.

Rutilated quartz used as a gemstone

The inclusions may be distributed randomly or in bundles, which sometimes are arranged star-like, and they can be sparse or dense enough to make the quartz body nearly opaque.

While otherwise inclusions often reduce the value of a crystal, rutilated quartz is valued for the quality of these inclusions.^[3][4]

See also

• Phantom quartz