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Hospitable Pondweed

#55a089
Notes

Hospitable Pondweed (#55A089) is a true teal with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (162°, 31%, 48%) places it in the balanced band at a mid lightness. It works across type, buttons, and borders, saturated enough to feel deliberate but balanced enough to not fight the rest of the palette. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary red. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#55a089
RGB
rgb(85, 160, 137)
HSL
hsl(162, 31%, 48%)
HWB
hwb(162 33% 37%)
OKLCH
oklch(65.0% 0.083 171.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4060 0.6204 0.5418)
HSV
hsv(162, 47%, 63%)
LAB
lab(60.67% -29.03 4.80)
LCH
lch(60.67% 29.43 170.61)
CMYK
cmyk(47%, 0%, 14%, 37%)

Etymology

Hospitable
adjective

Latin hospitābilis, of-the-host — adjectival suffix -able. As a color modifier, hospitable implies a clear-and-cordial-and-welcoming quality where the hue carries the visual register of Bed-and-Breakfast and country-inn warm-cordial-host atmosphere. Sits at the crisp-and-cheerful end of the grid, parallel to welcoming and inviting in usage.

Pondweed
noun

The genus Potamogeton — submerged aquatic plants of freshwater ponds and slow streams. The color refers to a clump of fresh pondweed seen through pond water: a soft, slightly cool deep yellow-green-blue with the optical complexity of submerged leaf scattering filtered sunlight.

Closest matches

The nearest named color in three reference sources, ranked by perceptual distance (ΔE76 in CIELAB). ΔE < 1 is imperceptible to most viewers; ΔE > 10 is clearly different. When two sources point to the same hex they’re merged into one tile; click any to open that color’s page.

Variations

Click any swatch to explore

Harmonies

Accessibility

Color-vision simulation

How this color appears to viewers with the four major color-vision-deficiency types. Computed via the Machado (2009) physiologically-based model. If a tile matches the original, the color reads the same to that viewer.

#55a089
Original
#9c9788
Protanopia
#908f8b
Deuteranopia
#3aa199
Tritanopia
#8e8e8e
Achromatopsia
WCAG contrast

The color used as foreground text against pure white and pure black, with the contrast ratio and WCAG 2.1 grade. Aim for AA (4.5:1) for body text and AA Large (3:1) for 18 pt+ headlines; AAA (7:1) is the gold standard for long-form reading surfaces.

The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AA Largeon White
3.10:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAon Black
6.78:1

Wide gamut

Display P3 representation

The CSS Color 4 wide-gamut form of this color. Both swatches render the same color on every display — the P3 form only diverges from sRGB when a designer pushes channels outside sRGB's reach.

sRGB hex
sRGB hex
##55A089
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4060 0.6204 0.5418)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.083

Moderately saturated colors gain a small bump in P3 — the difference is usually visible side-by-side on wide-gamut hardware but won't change the character of the color.

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