Habit: Colorless, pale yellow or dark yellow. Crystals typically wedge-shaped, tabular to short prismatic. Vitreous luster; transparent. White streak.
Environment: Occurs in kimberlite dikes and carbonatite and in differentiated alkalic massifs. Also associated with intrusive alkalic gabbro-syenite complexes.
Etymology: Named after Dr. Maxwell Naylor Short (1889-1952), a professor of mineralogy at the University of Arizona in Tucson.