Tourmaline

Tourmaline occurs in the widest array of colors of any gemstone species. Sometimes as many as two or three colors exist in the same cut stone.

Tourmaline is also known under different names: The rubelite is red, sometimes with a violet tint. Fine chrome tourmaline has a beautiful rich green color. Indicolite ranges from very light to dark shades of blue, violet blue, and greenish blue.

The name tourmaline has its origins in the Sinhalese word Turmali, which means mixture. Originally, native miners applied this term to mixed parcels of gems when they didn't really know what the stones were. 

Tourmaline is sometimes known as an alternate birthstone for October, and the accepted anniversary gemstone for the eighth year of marriage.

Tourmalines are found mainly in Brazil, Sri Lanka, Africa and the U.S.A.