Watermelon tourmaline, lepidolite, quartz

A very aesthetic sample of a 5 cm long columnar watermelon tourmaline that growing with the crystal of quartz into the cavity. The tourmaline crystal grows directly from the rock pad and is terminated by two cascades. At the first end-cascade in 4 cm of its length, there are 2 smaller lepidolite crystals and the second termination of the tourmaline is already narrower. The surrounding rock is a pegmatite composed of quartz, lepidolite, muscovite and feldspar. Watermelon tourmaline is a variety of coloured tourmaline (elbaite), where the core is red (rubellite) and the outside is green (verdelite). The scales of lepidolite have a deep pink colour and the muscovite has silver reflections.