In simple terms, dendrites form when water carrying manganese or iron flows through fractures and cracks inside rocks and crystals. As that water moves through, it leaves behind these incredible branching, fern like deposits. Sometimes they sit on the surface, sometimes they're trapped inside. Either way the result is the same, that unmistakable little fern like pattern that started my whole obsession.

They're also often mistaken for fossils, which makes sense because they genuinely look like a tiny plant pressed inside a rock. But they're not. They're a mineral formation, and an incredibly beautiful one at that.