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green garnet - the grossest garnet?
Green garnet's alias, gooseberry garnet , comes from its color resemblance to the color of the Chinese gooseberry, commonly known in the US as kiwi fruit .
The Transvaal , an area famous for its wide array of minerals, was a former province of South Africa until very recently. In 1994, it was divided into Eastern Transvaal (later renamed Mpumalanga), Northern Transvaal, Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Veereeniging (later renamed Gauteng), and part of North West province. It was bounded on the north and west by the Limpopo River (forming the border with Zimbabwe and Botswana), on the east by Mozambique and Swaziland, and on the south by the Vaal River, bordering Orange Free State (now Free State). Most of it was in the high veld, at an altitude of 3,000 - 6,000 ft..
Beads and figurines are frequently carved from hydro-grossular garnet.
 gooseberry garnet

transvaal jade
photo: courtesy of alan guisewite

Grossular garnet comes in two varieties: one is found as transparent crystals (tsavorite), the other is considered "massive" and is used mainly as a decorative stone under the name green garnet.
The massive green variety, which may contain up to five per cent water, is called hydro-grossular garnet and can be as large as a boulder, or even as a hill.
Grossular garnet forms by contact metamorphism and can be found in limestone rocks that have reacted with hot molten rock (magmatic inclusions). It may also be found in some igneous rocks.

transvaal area of south africa

Massive green grossular garnet from South Africa is called Transvaal jade after the area from which it is mined, although it resembles jade only in color.
Given the mineralogical complexity among the many members of the garnet group -- and the resulting melange of colors, green garnet on the market today may actually belong to one of several branches of the garnet family -- grossular, demantoid or uvarovite.

symbolic attributes

geographic
state mineral Vermont
metaphysical
energy projective / yang
planet Mars
element fire