Most commonly found as tiny indistinct grains, large euhedral clinohumite crystals are sought by collectors and occasionally fashioned into bright, yellow-orange gemstones.

A monoclinic mineral, clinohumite is typically a dark to light brownish or orangy yellow, somewhat resembling the hessonite variety of grossular.

Its refractive index (as measured via sodium light, 589.3 nm) is as follows: α 1.631; β 1.638–1.647; γ 1.668;, with a maximum birefringence of 0.028 (biaxial positive).

Like other members of the humite group, the relative amounts of hydroxyl and fluorine vary in clinohumite, and iron commonly substitutes for some of the magnesium, bringing about changes in physical and optical properties.

These deposits are scarce and only sporadically mined, so clinohumite remains one of the rarest gemstones with only a few thousand carats known to exist in private collections.

Other (non-gem quality) occurrences of clinohumite include: the Sør Rondane and Balchen Mountains of Antarctica; Mount Bischoff, Waratah, Tasmania; the Saualpe Mountains of Carinthia, the Koralpe mountains of Styria, and the Vals, Virgen, and Ziller valleys of the Tyrol, Austria; the Jacupiranga mine of Cajati, São Paulo State, Southeast Region, Brazil; the Pirin Mountains of Bulgaria; Bancroft, Ontario, Notre Dame du Laus, Wakefield, and Villedieu Township, Quebec, Canada; Southern and Western Finland; Bavaria and Saxony, Germany; eastern Greenland; Ambasamudram in Tamil Nadu, India; Honshū, Japan; Suan, North Korea; Nordland, Norway; KwaZulu-Natal and Northern Cape Province, South Africa; Andalusia, Spain; Värmland and Västmanland, Sweden; Isle of Skye, Scotland; and the states of California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Utah, and Washington, US.

Clinohumite is stable throughout the upper mantle to depths of at least 410 km (250 mi) and is a potential host phase for H (water) in this region of the Earth's interior.

[12][13] Minerals associated with humite include grossular, wollastonite, forsterite, monticellite, cuspidine, fluoborite, ludwigite, dolomite, calcite, talc, biotite, spinel, vesuvianite, sanidine, meionite and nepheline.