Starched Lace Moss

Old English stercan, to stiffen — past-participle of starch. As a color modifier, starched implies a clear-and-stiff-and-formal quality, the crisp color of Edwardian-period formal-evening-shirt-and-collar starched-and-pressed dress-attire. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to pressed and ironed in usage.

Old French laz, cord / lace. As a color modifier, lace implies a hand-tatted-and-decorative-net quality, the visual register of Edwardian-and-Belgian-Bruges-lace hand-tatted-and-bobbin-lace bridal-and-formal-wear delicate-network-pattern textile surfaces under Bruges-and-Edwardian hand-tatted-lace filtered light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to silk and fluff in usage.

Bryophyta — the nonvascular plants that colonized land 470 million years ago, before vascular plants and far before flowers. The color refers to a thick mat of Hypnum or sphagnum on a temperate forest floor: a soft, slightly yellow-shifted green with the velvet texture of millimeter-scale leaves. Dustier than fern, deeper than lichen, with the slow patience of a plant that lives by absorbing rain through its surface.