Dragon Blood Jasper Tumbled Gemstone

Not considered toxic and stable to handle. Some pieces have softer spots, so avoid harsh chemicals, ultrasonic cleaners and long soaks.

Dragon Stone Jasper comes chiefly from Limpopo Province in South Africa, where it reached the crystal trade around 2015; similar green-and-red material from Western Australia is also sold as Dragon Blood Jasper. It formed when heat, pressure and mineral-rich fluids reworked older rock, crystallizing a dense mass of green epidote laced with red, manganese-bearing piemontite. Because the red grows naturally through the green, no two pieces carry the same pattern.

Despite its trade name, Dragon Stone Jasper is not a true jasper, which is a microcrystalline quartz. Geologically it is an epidosite, a metamorphic rock made mostly of green epidote with red piemontite, both monoclinic members of the epidote group, plus some quartz. As a rock rather than a single mineral it has no single chemical formula. It is opaque, takes a good polish, and measures about 6 to 7 on the Mohs scale, with occasional softer spots.

• Dragon Stone has no ancient written record. Its name is a modern one, and popular lore pictures the green as a dragon's scaled hide and the red as the blood it spilled in battle.
• One account traces the name to a dragon-shaped hill near the Tshipise hot springs in South Africa's Limpopo Province, close to where the stone is found.
• Across many cultures the dragon has stood for guarded power and fierce protection, and the stone is carried today as a talisman of that same courage.