Brooding Speedwell

The adjectival use of brood in the sense of to dwell on — a gerund-as-modifier that describes mood more than reflectance. Used as a color word principally in art criticism since the late nineteenth century: brooding sky, brooding portrait. In the engine's adjective grid, brooding sits in the dark-and-quiet end where the hue is present but reads as withholding rather than presenting itself.

Veronica chamaedrys, the small-flowered creeping speedwell of European hedgerows and lawn margins — named speedwell in folk Latin for its old reputation as a wound-healing herb. The color refers to a fresh speedwell flower: a saturated, slightly violet-shifted bright blue with the matte finish of a small four-petaled bloom. Cooler than periwinkle, warmer than cornflower, with the wildflower weight of a plant most often noticed by accident in a lawn.