Moss Agate
Clear chalcedony with green branching inclusions that look like plants.
- Family
- Chalcedony
- Formula
- SiO₂
- Mohs
- 6.5 to 7
- System
- Trigonal
Drag to turn
Science
Moss agate is not banded and so not strictly an agate. Its plant-like growths are dendrites of manganese and iron oxides, or green chlorite, that crystallised in fractures of the chalcedony. Nothing organic is involved despite the appearance.
- Mineral
- Chalcedony (variety)
- Formula
- SiO₂
- Crystal system
- Trigonal
- Mohs hardness
- 6.5 to 7
- Specific gravity
- 2.58 to 2.64
- Refractive index
- 1.530 to 1.540
- Lustre
- Waxy to vitreous
- Colours
- Green, Colourless
Composition
SiO₂. Made of Silicon, Oxygen, with trace Manganese, Iron responsible for colour.
Origin
- India
- United StatesMontana
- Brazil
- Uruguay
- Australia
Filled dots are primary sources
Rarity
Common. Pieces where the dendrites form clear 'landscapes' are collected.
- 1 Abundant
- 2 Common
- 3 Uncommon
- 4 Rare
- 5 Exceptional
Hardness
Moss Agate sits at 6.5 to 7 on the Mohs scale. It will scratch glass and holds a polish in daily wear.
Energy
Associations from crystal-healing tradition, recorded here as folklore. They are not medical claims.
Chakras
- Heart
Element
- Earth
Zodiac
- Virgo
- Gemini
Planets
- Moon
- Mercury
Properties
- Growth
- New beginnings
- Abundance
- Steadiness
Lore
Farmers in Britain hung it from their ploughs and horns for good harvests; it remains the gardener's stone in every crystal tradition.
Eighteenth-century collectors prized 'landscape agates' as natural paintings, and the best still command a premium for the picture alone.
- DendritesFractal mineral growths, the same physics as frost on a window.
- Tree agateAn opaque white relative with the same green dendrites.