Praetorian Bluff Forest

Latin praetōriānus, of the praetor — adjectival suffix, referring to the Roman-Imperial elite guard-cohorts. As a color modifier, praetorian implies a saturated-and-elite-and-imperial-guard quality, the deep-rich color of Roman-Praetorian-Guard elite-imperial-bodyguard scarlet-tunic-and-bronze-armor military-formation. Sits at the bold-and-formal end of the grid, parallel to spartan and imperial.

Middle Dutch blaf, broad-and-flat. As a color modifier, bluff implies a high-river-bank quality, the visual register of Mississippi-and-Missouri-River-Bluffs tall sediment-and-loess river-bank cliff-face surfaces in late-afternoon Mississippi-and-Missouri-River raking light. Sits at the modifier-and-place end of the grid, parallel to cliff and crag in usage.

The dense canopy of a temperate or tropical woodland — oak, beech, pine, eucalyptus, mahogany — wherever leaves close above to filter the light below. Forest green refers to the average reflectance of a healthy mid-summer canopy seen from below: a saturated, slightly muted green with the matte finish of layered chlorophyll. Deeper than fern, cooler than olive, with the ecological weight of a word that has named every wooded biome on Earth.