Starched Ave 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.

Latin ave, hail-or-greeting. As a color modifier, ave implies a Latin-greeting-and-Ave-Maria-and-Ave-Caesar quality, the visual register of Ave-Maria-and-Ave-Caesar-greeting hand-Latin-greeting-and-Ave-Maria-and-Ave-Caesar Ave-Maria-and-Ave-Caesar-greeting-and-Catholic-prayer-and-Roman-salute ave-and-Latin-greeting surfaces under Ave-Maria-and-Ave-Caesar-greeting-and-Catholic-prayer-and-Roman-salute Roman-arena-and-Catholic-liturgy hailing-greeting-light. Sits at the modifier-and-Latin end of the grid, parallel to salve and pax 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.