Grossular or grossularite is a calcium aluminium mineral species of the garnet group. Ferrous iron may replace a part of the calcium and ferric iron may replace a part of the aluminium.

The name grossular is derived from ‘grossularia’ the botanical name of gooseberry. It refers to the green garnet from Siberia. The other colors are yellow, red and cinnamon brown.

The more common variety of grossular is called hessonite. These yellow crystal appear similar to Zircon. But the hardness of hessonite is less than that of Zircon. The word hessonite itself means ‘inferior’

Green Grossular Garnet from Kenya and Tanzania is much sought after. Its name tsavorite is derived from Tsavo area of Kenya where this garnet was discovered in 1960s. Viluite, a variety of grossular, is usually olive green or brownish or reddish in color.

Grossular is known by other names such as colophonite, ernite, gooseberry-garnet etc. Some of the misnomers are South African jade, garnet jade, Transvaal jade, and African jade.