Green jade: shades, meaning and value
Green jade is the color most people mean when they say jade, and it is not one stone. It occurs in two different gem materials, jadeite and nephrite, and GIA notes that green is the most valued color in both. That makes the word “green” on a label a poor guide. The shade and the stone type decide what a green jade stone is worth, and the same word covers the finest gem jadeite and dull gray-green stone that sells for very little.
Gem laboratories now also accept green omphacite, a close mineral relative of jadeite, as jade under certain conditions. If the two main names are new to you, read how jadeite and nephrite differ first.
What makes jade green
In jadeite. Pure jadeite is colorless, and as a rock it usually looks white because light scatters off the boundaries between its grains. Color comes from traces of metal ions in the crystal. The Gems & Gemology study of Burmese jade by Richard Hughes and co-authors attributes the vivid emerald green of the best jadeite to chromium, of which very little is needed, and a 2012 GIA study confirmed it by measuring trace elements. Iron produces the more common grassy, bluish and grayish greens.
In nephrite. Green nephrite is colored mainly by iron, and the rule is simple: the more iron, the deeper the green. A GIA study of nephrite chemistry found white nephrite almost free of iron, with the iron share rising through light green and bluish green to dark green.
The two rarely look alike side by side. Nephrite’s colors are more muted and its polished surface has a soft, greasy luster, where polished jadeite looks glassy.
Shades of green jade and their trade names
| Name | Stone | What it describes |
|---|---|---|
| Imperial green, di wang lu (帝王绿) | Jadeite | The top grade: a vivid emerald green in almost transparent stone |
| Kingfisher | Jadeite | A green only slightly less vivid than imperial |
| Yang lu (阳绿) | Jadeite | Bright, “sunny” green, the second name on the Chinese ladder |
| Apple green (苹果绿) | Jadeite | An intense yellowish green, placed below yang lu on the Chinese ladder |
| Bean green, dou lu (豆绿) | Jadeite | A lower rung of the Chinese ladder, beneath the bright greens |
| Moss-in-snow | Jadeite | Translucent white with bright green veins, patches or spots |
| Oily green, you qing (油青) | Jadeite | A gray-blue green, the least valued green |
| Spinach green, bi yu (碧玉) | Nephrite | Green to dark green, often with black specks |
| Qing yu (青玉) | Nephrite | Gray-green to blue-green, the most plentiful nephrite color |
| Qing bai yu (青白玉) | Nephrite | White with a slight greenish, bluish or grayish tint |
Imperial, kingfisher, apple and moss-in-snow are the four named greens in GIA’s quality guide. The Chinese names are trade descriptions, not laboratory grades, and dealers do not all draw the lines in the same place. GIA describes imperial green as pure and penetrating, with no grayish tint, and intense even from a distance. It has its own page: imperial jade.
Dark green jade
Dark green jade is most often nephrite of the spinach green kind. In green nephrite, the stronger the color, the more likely the stone is to carry black specks, so a strongly colored piece with none is rare and priced accordingly. Among the leading sources, GIA reports that Siberian material shows brighter greens and generally commands higher prices.
In jadeite, very dark green means iron-rich or omphacite-rich material, and the darkest of it looks black until a light passes through it (see black jade).
Light green jade
Light green jade covers three things: jadeite with low color saturation, which GIA notes sells for much less than intense color; nephrite with little iron; and the nephrite class qing bai yu, which is closer to white than to green.
How dealers judge a green
Chinese dealers sum up a good jadeite green in four words:
- nong (浓): saturated, not pale
- yang (阳): bright and vivid, not gray or dark
- zheng (正): a pure green that does not lean off toward another color
- yun (匀): evenly spread
The direction a green leans matters. A slight lean toward yellow keeps the color bright, and those greens hold their value. A lean toward blue makes the green darker, and the more gray and blue it carries, the lower it ranks.
Hughes and his co-authors call saturation by far the most important element of color in green jadeite, and add that it can only be judged by putting stones side by side. One stone, or one photo, gives you no baseline.
Translucency counts as much as hue. GIA rates semitransparent jadeite the most desirable, because light enters the stone and makes the color glow, and notes that good transparency can partly make up for uneven color or low saturation. Fully opaque jadeite is the least desirable.
What green jade means and symbolizes
According to GIA, the Chinese associate jade with clarity of mind and purity of spirit, and jadeite is taken to symbolize prosperity, success and good luck. These are cultural meanings, not properties of the stone.
The bright green now tied to the word jade is a fairly recent taste in China. Jadeite first arrived from Burma in quantity in the late 1700s, and before that Chinese jade was nephrite.
Green jade carried a different meaning in ancient Mesoamerica. The Metropolitan Museum of Art records that green to blue-green jadeite was linked with water, growing plants (young maize above all) and life itself, was reserved for gods and royalty, and that the Maya preferred a bright green hue. The wider symbolism is covered under what jade means.
How green jade is valued
Small differences in shade make large differences in price. GIA says intense jadeite colors command a substantial premium over lighter, weaker ones. Dealers say that with texture and translucency equal, a piece with good green is worth many times a colorless one, and that one small step in the quality of the green can change the price several times over. Mottling, dark specks and dull blotches all cost value. The ranking of every color, with auction records, is on the page about jade value by color.
The other jade colors
Green is one of many. Every color, with its cause and trade names, is laid out in the jade color chart.
White jade means two stones: white nephrite, whose finest grade is the most valuable nephrite color, and white or colorless jadeite. Lavender jade is jadeite colored by manganese, and GIA ranks it next after green. Black jade is either a jadeite relative that shows green against a strong light or black nephrite.
Red jade and yellow jade in jadeite are not colors of the crystals at all. They are rust-colored stain in the weathered skin of the boulder, and both are often heated to deepen them.
If you have heard that jade turns greener the longer it is worn, see whether jade changes color.
Checking a green before you pay
Green is the color most often faked with dye. Dye collects in cracks and along grain boundaries, and dyed green has been seen to fade. The Swiss laboratory SSEF describes a vivid green ring stone that turned out to be nearly chromium-free jadeite colored by dye, which only its spectra revealed. The treatment grades are explained in type A, B and C jade.
Green is also easy to misjudge on a screen. Strong LED lamps, camera filters and raised saturation all make it look richer than it is. Dealers advise asking for pictures taken in daylight without direct sun, and GIA notes that professional buyers judge jade color under more than one kind of light.
Looking closely in daylight narrows things down. For any piece that costs real money, only a gemological laboratory report settles whether the green is natural.
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Frequently asked questions
What does green jade symbolize?
In China jade is associated with clarity of mind and purity of spirit, and green jadeite is taken to stand for prosperity, success and good luck. In ancient Mesoamerica green jade was linked with water, young maize and life. These are cultural meanings, not properties of the stone.
What makes jade green?
In jadeite, a small amount of chromium gives the vivid emerald green and iron gives the duller, bluish or grayish greens. In nephrite the green comes mainly from iron, and the more iron the stone holds, the deeper the green.
What is dark green jade?
Most often it is nephrite of the kind called spinach green, which runs from green to dark green and frequently carries black specks. Very dark green jadeite is iron-rich material that can look black until light passes through it.
Is light green jade valuable?
Usually less than strong green. Light green jade can be jadeite with low color saturation, which sells for much less than intense color, or low-iron nephrite. High translucency and fine texture can still make a pale piece desirable.
Is green jade always valuable?
No. Green is the most valued color in both jadeite and nephrite, but only a bright, pure, even green on fine translucent stone is worth much. Gray or dark greens, coarse opaque stone and dyed green jade sit at the bottom.