Functional Dux Moss

Latin fūnctiō, performance — adjectival suffix -al. As a color modifier, functional implies a clear-and-purpose-fit-and-utilitarian quality, the crisp color of Mid-Century-Modern and Bauhaus form-follows-function design-aesthetic. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to practical and utilitarian in usage.

Latin dux, leader-or-general. As a color modifier, dux implies a Latin-leader-and-Roman-general-and-Doge quality, the visual register of Roman-dux-and-Venetian-Doge hand-Latin-leader-and-Roman-general-and-Doge Roman-dux-and-Venetian-Doge-and-Renaissance-condottiere dux-and-Latin-leader surfaces under Roman-dux-and-Venetian-Doge-and-Renaissance-condottiere Republican-Rome-and-Venetian-Doge's-Palace leader-and-general-light. Sits at the modifier-and-Latin end of the grid, parallel to pater and virtus 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.