Refreshing Stalk Moss

Old French refreschir, to make fresh again — present-participle of refresh. As a color modifier, refreshing implies a clear-and-cool-and-revitalizing quality, the crisp color of Cornish-coast and Hebridean-island fresh-sea-air-and-cool-water revitalization. Sits at the crisp-and-cool end of the grid, parallel to fresh and bracing in usage.

Old English stealcung, to-walk-stealthily. As a color modifier, stalk implies a deliberate-and-stealthy-and-tracked quality, the visual register of Highland-stalker-and-stag-stalk hand-deliberate-and-stealthy-and-tracked Highland-stalker-and-stag-and-tracker stalked-and-deliberate-and-stealthy-and-tracked surfaces under Highland-stalker-and-stag-and-tracker heather-moor-and-corrie-and-deer-forest tracked-and-stealthy-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to prowl and creep 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.