Crystal variety
Natural snow crystals appear in a wide variety of morphologies or shapes. Stellar snowflakes (top row, left to right) include simple hexagonal
plate crystals with surface markings; "sectored plate" crystals in which the plate-like branches are decorated with distinctive ridges; stellar
dendrite crystals with moderate side branching; and "fern-like" stellar dendrites with numerous side branches. Columnar snowflakes (bottom
row, from left to right) include simple hollow-column crystals; needle clusters; and "capped column" crystals in which thin stellar plates (seen
edge on in far-right image) grow on the ends of stout columns or needle clusters.
Source: snowcrystals.com