Bree, your post sent me off searching and reading stuff posted by rock hounds and geologists on forums that they frequent, where, I’ve just learned, they often make fun of misattributions of minerals.
Here is my understanding of my reading, condensed to a couple bullet points:
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Jasper and petrified wood are cousins. They are both made of very finely crystallized chalcedony, which is a form of quartz. Petrified wood is considered a form of agate.
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Jasper is opaque, while agate (petrified wood) is translucent. That is, you can see light through it. It’s more quartz-y.
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Picture jasper is petrified mud or petrified sediments coming together. Petrified wood is, well, like the name says.
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The colors of both jasper and agate vary based on the presence of different minerals.
I was looking through what I have on hand, stuff that I own & wear.
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Here are two petrified wood bracelets, one Harvey era and the other later. (The latter has very cool bezel – each prong is a tiny trefoil. Hard to see the work in this picture.) This stuff looks very glassy and quartz-like to me. The top one look like partly rare, charbroiled meat, maybe brushed with red bar-b-que sauce. The bottom one has mahogany and mustard and black streaks through it.
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This is picture jasper. Talk about a stone that haunts you. Sometimes I think this looks like a Southwestern cliff. At other times I think it looks like a billowing cloak or skirts, such was what 19th century dancers Loie Fuller or Isadora Duncan would flare out when they danced. I tried not to buy this but had to. Anyway, look how matte and flat this is, compared with the petrified wood. But of course, it has its own charms.