In this page you can find some links to pages with information about natural gemstone, their properties and their meanings, sorted and grouped by species. Each species of gemstone may have one or more varieties, based on special characteristics like: color, optical effect and other phenomenon, for example Amethyst and Citrine are both from the Quartz family but they are separately with different name because of their different colors, or think about a Star Sapphire, a particular Sapphire that reveal a nice six rays star on the surface when cut into cabochon, this optical effect is called asterism.
These varieties are now used to clearly distinguish different gemstones simply calling them with the appropriate name applied when a particular characteristic is present, this can be useful during the trade for the seller but also for the buyer that immediately recognize what kind of gemstone his buying.
Some specific species like Peridot are not variety with significantly characteristics, in fact Peridot can be found only with green color, and optical effect are so rare that is difficult to find some Cat’s eye Peridot or Star Peridot. Many species variety are became so popular duo to their specific characteristics that people now recognize them only by their variety name and not by their species, think about Aquamarine or Emerald, people know them by their variety name, but only few knew that they comes from the Beryl mineral family.
Follow the links to read more about a specific gemstone you are interested for.
Natural Gemstones
- Alexandrite The color change variety from the chrysoberyl mineral family.
- Amethyst The purple colored variety from the Quartz family.
- Aquamarine The light blue variety from the Beryl family.
- Citrine The Quartz variety with golden yellow color.
- Diamond The most popular and hard stone of the world.
- Emerald The green variety of Beryl family with its unique color and inclusions.
- Garnet Discover the most precious and attractive gem species of Garnet.
- Iolite The gem variety from the Cordierite mineral family with its unique pleochroism.
- Kunzite The pink variety of Spodumene mineral family.
- Kyanite Discover the properties of this beautiful gemstone, available in: blue, green, orange and other colors.
- Labradorite The popular stone with its unique iridescent called labradorescence.
- Moonstone One of the most magical stone available on the gem market with its unique iridescence called adularescence.
- Opal A legendary stone with play of colors, available with different body color and pattern.
- Peridot The gemstone available only with green color, with its unique inclusions.
- Ruby The king of precious stones, one of the most valuable gemstone available on the market, the red color variety of Corundum.
- Sapphire The other variety of Corundum excluded Ruby, with high hardness and a lot of colors variety.
- Spinel The deceptive gemstone with its red color so close to the Ruby.
- Tanzanite The purplish blue variety of the Zoisite mineral family.
- Topaz The popular gemstone with high hardness and beautiful colors.
- Tourmaline The only gemstone available in all the rainbow colors.
- Turquoise The cousin of lapis Lazuli very popular and used by american native people.
- Zircon The brilliant gemstone, with a lot of sparkle and fire, available with beautiful colors.