Types and Varieties of Green Crystals

From beautiful, bold, fresh colors to deep, rich forest green hues, green crystals, and gemstones are incredibly calming and inviting. Green crystals are highly sought-after by collectors and are commonly seen in modern-day jewelry.

Before we get started we should take a minute and talk about the color green. I know this sounds boring but it is important if you’re a buyer or collector. Pure green is going to be the most valuable, but secondary colors can be present. Secondary hues in yellow stones are yellow and blue depending on the mineral.

 

Types of Green Crystals

Generally, a pure green color is the most desirable and expensive but it’s hard to come by. As you scroll through the content and pics you’ll notice most stones have secondary colors and the gemstones with a pure green color will attract your attention the most.

 

 

Prehnite

Prehnite crystals are brittle and produce an uneven fracture with a vitreous to pearly luster. These stones have a hardness of 6 to 6.5 and a specific gravity of 2.80 to 2.90, and their colors vary from light green to yellow but can also be colorless, blue, white, or pink. 

Typically, you’ll see these crystal growths on the surface of matrix but in some cases, like the photo above, it will grow in a botryoidal formation.

 

 

Aventurine

Green is the most common color of Aventurine, but it can also be orange, yellow, blue, gray, or brown. If you look closely you’ll notice a glitter or sparkle effect inside of the stone. This is caused by chrome-bearing Fuschite, which is a variety of Muscovite Mica.

This material is very common and can be sourced from almost anywhere. You’ll mostly find it in tumbled form.

 

 

Chrysoberyl

Chrysoberyl, in its classic form, ranges from honey-gold to green with a translucent to transparent clarity. You’ll see this material in crystal form, cabochons, faceted, and displayed as a specimen.

Chrysoberyl is sometimes compared to Yellow Sapphire but it is much more affordable.

 

 

Green Idocrase (Vesuvianite)

Vesuvianite is typically translucent green, yellowish green, or brownish-green. Rare crystal specimens can be colorless, white, pink, purple, blue, red, violet, or black but the color green is the most common variety.

Green Idocarse is very popular in Southeast Asia but not so popular in the United States.

 

 

Amazonite

Amazonite is typically light green to bluish-green or greenish blue and is used in beads, cabochons, and decorative items. Some of the best mineral specimens are located in Pikes Peak, Colorado.

However, specimens have been found at archeological sites in the Middle East dating back 2000 years.

 

 

Chrome Tourmaline

One of my all-time favorites because the color is so intense and when you cut the stone it enhances the deep greens. This material is becoming harder to acquire but if you’re patient and know the right dealers then you’ll come across material every couple of months but you better be quick to buy it.

 

 

Alexandrite

Alexandrite is an incredibly rare variety of the mineral Chrysobery. It offers chameleon-like qualities because its color can change from a beautiful green in daylight or fluorescent light, to a purplish red or brown in incandescent lights. 

 

 

Wavellite

Wavellite is typically green to yellowish-green or chartreuse; less commonly, the stone can be yellowish-brown, brown, brownish-black, and blue. In cross-section, the crystals exhibit concentric multicolored zoning.

Under shortwave UV light, Wavellite can be fluorescent yellow-sky blue, and under longwave UV, it can be yellow-strong sky blue.

 

 

Green Calcite

Green Calcite is a gem-quality calcium carbonate that’s translucent and can be sourced in different shades of green. Most of this material will be in small to large chunks.

It’s fairly common to see this material carved into figurines or made into home furnishings or nick-nacks.

 

Dark Green Crystals

If you like the color green then you’ll probably enjoy darker versions as long as their not too dark. There’s nothing worse then a super dark green stone because you won’t be able to appreciate the green color due to it looking almost black.

 

Emerald

The most expensive Emeralds are bluish or pure deep green and that is why they make the list. These colors are extremely difficult to source and you rarely see one of high quality.

Columbia is currently the top producer of high-quality stones but Africa has a few countries producing light to medium colored stones with good clarity.

 

 

Malachite

Malachite is typically opaque and comes in vivid bluish-green to green hues. The crystals are usually banded in two or more tones of green and can display a subtle sheen.

Malachite is a copper mineral that’s commonly found in conjunction with Azurite. When you combine the two you get a brand new stone to collect called Azurmalachite.

 

 

Bloodstone

Bloodstone is a beautiful dark green variety of Chalcedony that displays a spatter or speckling of bright red hues. This stone has been popular for over two thousand years and has served as a birthstone for March since around 1912.

 

 

Tsavorite Garnet

Tsavorite Garnet is a green variety in the Garnet family and is highly sought after by collectors and gem enthusiasts. The crystals alone are very captivating and fun to roll around in your fingers when you have a larger piece. Facet and cab rough can be sourced but it’s pricey and rightfully so.

Despite the stone’s rarity, Green Garnets can be found in a number of different locations worldwide; the largest and most well-known deposits are in Africa, but these gemstones can also be found in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, and Brazil.

 

 

Dioptase

Dioptase is a rare Copper Cyclosillicate stone that solidifies as small inclusions in Quartz while Chrom Dioptase can be found in larger crystal formations.

 

Why You Need to Collect Green Crystals

Gren crystals are stunning, beautiful, warm, and inviting. There is something calming about a vibrant green stone or crystal when you see it in person or hold it in your hand.

While red and blue stones are the most prized and seemingly rare, green hues seem to shine bright in an unsurpassable way.

Don’t forget to take a look at my other articles about crystals. Here’s a complete write-up about Types of Purple Crystals.