Apr 19
Purple flos ferri aragonite from Austria. "Flos ferri" literally means "flower of iron" — the name old European miners gave to this radiating, coral-like form of aragonite they kept finding in iron mines. It forms when aragonite crystallizes quickly at low temperatures in cavity walls of iron ore bodies. The Erzberg ("iron mountain") and other Styrian iron workings are the classic locality, producing flos ferri since the 1700s. The unusual purple color likely comes from trace manganese or organic inclusions, and under longwave UV Austrian material often shows a soft green glow.
