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Rhodolite

Rhodolite tends to be lighter in color than most other kinds of red garnets and can be easily confused with rubies because of its similarity in color.
Natural Rhodolite oval weighing 4.61 cts, from  Africa.

Originally a rose color variety of Pyrope, Rhodolite garnet is the name applied to a mixture of pyrope and almandite and it tends to be lighter in color than most other kinds of red garnets.

The name rhodolite has long been thought to originate from the rhododendron flower, which is abundant in North Carolina where stone was discovered in the late 1890s by Rhode Island mineralogist William Earl Hidden. In fact, both stone and the flower take their names from the Greek word "rhodon", meaning rose.

Rhodolite tends to be lighter in color than most other kinds of red garnets and can be easily confused with rubies, because of the similarity in color. Technically, Rhodolite should have some purple, or at least be rose colored but the trade will apply name rhodolite for stones with even a slight suggestion of purple in the hue.

Rhodolite garnets should be differentiated from its darker red cousins like almandine and pyrope and the mixture of red and violet in rhodolites is highly desirable and popular. The most important sources of top rhodolite garnet are Tanzania, India, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.

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