Malonic acid is a dicarboxylic acid of ethane that is primarily used in the synthesis of barbiturates. The organic acid is prepared by interaction of monochloroacetic acid with sodium cyanide followed by hydrolysis of the resulting cyanoacetic acid. When recrystallized from the melt, malonic acid will slowly crystallize, forming beautiful dendritic needle-like crystals. The time-lapse movie was made using a modified version of the Intel Play QX3 microscope equipped for polarized light illumination with a full-wave (first order) retardation plate.