a gorgeous group of gems
When many people think of garnets, they often picture a "garnet-red" stone. But garnets are actually a large group of related minerals, each with a slight variation in chemical composition, a circumstance that provides for a startling range of colors among family members. All members of the group also have similar physical and crystalline properties and structures.
For the most part, each stone within the garnet group relates to a particular color:
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almandine - red to purplish red
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demantoid - rich green variety
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hessonite - variety name for a fine orange or cinnamon brown variety of grossularite
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melanite - black titanium bearing variety of andradite
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pyrope - orangy red, crimson, or dark red
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rhodolite - purplish red pyrope-almandite garnet
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spessartine - can be red, reddish orange, orange, yellow-brown, reddish brown, or blackish brown
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tsavorite - trade name for fine dark green grossularite
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uvarovite - the only consistently green garnet with a beautiful emerald-green color
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Because of the slight variations in the chemical compositions of group members, garnet displays one of the greatest color ranges of any mineral, occurring in every color except blue. 