Ironed Dryad Moss

Old English īsern, iron — past-participle of iron. As a color modifier, ironed implies a clear-and-smoothed-and-pressed quality, the crisp color of Mid-Century-Modern freshly-ironed-shirt-and-trouser dress-attire textile finish. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to pressed and starched in usage.

Greek δρυάς, oak-tree-nymph. As a color modifier, dryad implies an oak-tree-nymph-and-grove-spirit quality, the visual register of Hellenic-dryad-and-oak-grove-nymph hand-oak-tree-nymph-and-grove-spirit Hellenic-dryad-and-oak-grove-nymph-and-Arcadian-grove dryad-and-oak-tree-nymph-and-grove-spirit surfaces under Hellenic-dryad-and-oak-grove-nymph-and-Arcadian-grove Dodona-oak-and-sacred-grove tree-nymph-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to nymph and nereid 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.