Chrysanthemum Stones : Most of the Chrysanthemum Stones in China are from Hubei Province, and there are many "embellished" C. Stones from Hunan Province, they occur in a grayish limestone and the patterns are very faint irregular shapes with edges similar to what pinking shears do to cloth, a zig zagging pattern.  The material is darkened by putting black color on the whole rock after outlining the pattern in pencil.  Then the design is painted on with white paint.  Immersing these in water will show a loss of contrast between the rock and design. Genuine Chrysanthemum Stones (Hubei Province) have patterns made of solid calcite/strontianite/quartz mixture shapes, often petal shaped, and often resembling flowers.  Recurrent themes are "Palm trees" and "fireworks."  There have been huge assembled stones up to four feet tall, they have been manufactured by placing real patterned stones together in a synthetic black medium that is very close to the carbonaceous limestone of the genuine stones. The collecting areas are currently being covered by a new reservoir and the stones will become very rare now. There are also some rare ornamental stones from Igneous rock in Japan that are fashioned into beautiful presentations with small polished tablets of the rock with custom bases with graceful design. These are called Suiseki.

We sent a Chrysanthemum Stone from Hubei Province, China to Bob Downs at the Univ. of AZ and the white material is a mixture of Strontianite and Calcite.  Almost all the literature says Celestine instead of Strontianite.  Most of the Chrysanthemum Stones in China are from Hubei Province, and there are many "embellished" C. Stones from Hunan Province, they occur in a grayish limestone and the patterns are very faint irregular shapes with edges similar to what pinking shears do to cloth, a zig zagging pattern. The collecting areas are currently being covered by a new reservoir and the stones will become very rare now.

Our lab results indicated the flower stone is composed of : 83% Strontianite, 10% Quartz and 7% Calcite.