Jade
For most of human history, “jade” named one thing. It doesn’t, and the discovery that it doesn’t is recent enough to be startling: it wasn’t until 1863 that the French mineralogist Alexis Damour formally established that two chemically distinct minerals had been carved, polished, and revered under the single name jade for thousands of years across separate cultures who had no way of knowing the material each was working wasn’t the same as the other’s.
Those two minerals are jadeite and nephrite, and the distinction isn’t a fine technical footnote — they belong to entirely different mineral families. Jadeite is a pyroxene, a group that also includes spodumene and diopside. Nephrite is an amphibole, a chemically and structurally distinct family entirely. That the two minerals converged on such similar appearance and working properties — tough, compact, typically green, capable of taking a high polish — despite genuinely different underlying chemistry is exactly why no single chemical formula is given for jade on this site: giving one would misrepresent one of the two minerals as the whole story.
Both share a monoclinic crystal system and overlapping hardness — jadeite runs Mohs 6.5 to 7, nephrite 6 to 6.5 — but their toughness, the resistance to fracturing under impact that matters enormously for a stone historically worked into tools, weapons, and ceremonial objects, comes from a densely interlocking fibrous or granular structure in both cases, achieved by different mineral chemistry.
Jadeite is generally the rarer and more highly valued of the two, especially the vivid, translucent green variety prized in Chinese jewelry and known in the trade as imperial jade; its most significant historical source is Myanmar. Nephrite is geologically more widespread and has a longer continuous carving history in several independent traditions — it was the jade of ancient Chinese jade culture before jadeite reached China from Myanmar in the 18th century, and it’s also the material behind New Zealand pounamu (greenstone), central to Māori culture. Guatemala, Canada, and China are additional sources across both minerals.
Jade doesn’t appear on any of the historical or modern monthly birthstone lists, or on either zodiac system, tracked on this site — it’s included here as a standalone reference entry, the same way malachite is.
Gemmological properties
| Mohs hardness | 6–7 |
|---|---|
| Crystal system | Monoclinic |
| Chemical formula | Not recorded |
| Refractive index | 1.6–1.67 |
| Color family | Green, White, Multicolor |
| Variety of | — |
| Also known as | Jadeite, Nephrite |
| Origins | Myanmar, China, Guatemala, New Zealand, Canada |
| Organic material | No |
"Jade" is two different minerals, not one. Jadeite (a pyroxene, Mohs 6.5-7) and nephrite (an amphibole, Mohs 6-6.5) were only distinguished in 1863; both had been called jade for millennia. They share a monoclinic crystal system but have genuinely different chemistry, which is why no single formula is given here. Jadeite is the rarer and more valuable of the two.
Frequently asked questions
- Is jade one mineral or two?
- Two, and they aren't even in the same mineral family. Jadeite is a pyroxene and nephrite is an amphibole — genuinely different crystal chemistries that happen to produce visually similar, tough, compact ornamental stone. Both were called 'jade' interchangeably for millennia before mineralogists formally distinguished them in 1863.
- Which is more valuable, jadeite or nephrite?
- Jadeite, generally by a wide margin, particularly the vivid, translucent green material known as imperial jade. Jadeite is also the rarer of the two, historically sourced mainly from Myanmar, while nephrite is more widespread geologically and was the jade of ancient China, New Zealand's pounamu, and other early jade-working cultures before jadeite entered the picture.
- Is jade a birthstone on any of the lists this site tracks?
- No. It doesn't appear on any of the historical, US, UK, or zodiac systems documented on this site — it's covered here as a standalone gemstone reference entry.