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Identification
Red corals grow about three feet tall, in a bush shape. They tend to grow in dark environments, in places with little sediment. The main corals defined as "red coral" are the species Corallium rubrum and Corallium japonicum, which do not form reefs.
Common depths red coral grows in are 10 to 300 meters below the surface of the sea. However there are red corals are known to grow as high as four meters below the surface, while others grow 350 to 1500 meters below the surface.
Sources
The places red coral can be found in the Pacific include Taiwan, Japan, the Midway Islands, north-eastern Australia and the Malaysian Archipelago. Mediterranean sources include places around Sardinia, Algeria, Turkey, Tunisia and Slovenia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. Red coral can also be found in the Red Sea and around the Canary Islands in the Atlantic.
Function
Red coral is used in jewelry in such pieces as bracelets, earrings and necklaces. It is a soft gem, rating 3.5 on the Mohs scale, a scale that rates gem hardness (a diamond rates 10). Because of its softness, coral is often shaped into rounded forms. To give it a shiny luster, red coral is polished.
History
In prehistory, it is thought that the first corals formed approximately millions of years ago, in the Cambrian period.
Red coral's history in relation to modern man has been for the past several thousand years, a commodity since the time of the ancients. Pliny the Elder wrote about the Indian and Mediterranean coral trade route. Egyptian jewelry with red coral has been found, and Roman folklore speaks of the protective metaphysical properties of red coral.
Red coral is also mentioned in Greek mythology. One such myth states red coral came from seaweed turned red by the blood of Medusa.
Considerations
Red coral is one of the colors of coral known by the name precious coral. It's one of the two officially recognized organic gemstones; the other is the pearl. Both are made of calcium carbonate.