Sharp Lurk Goldenrod

Old English scearp, cutting, pointed — applied metaphorically to color since the seventeenth century for hues that read as definite and edge-defined. Sharp red, sharp green: the implication is saturation combined with high-contrast crispness. Sits in the bright-bucket center alongside crisp and clear, with a slightly more incisive edge.

Middle English lurken, to-lie-hidden. As a color modifier, lurk implies a hidden-and-watching-and-shadowed quality, the visual register of forest-edge-and-alley-mouth-lurk hand-hidden-and-watching-and-shadowed forest-edge-and-alley-mouth-and-bridge-undercroft lurked-and-hidden-and-watching-and-shadowed surfaces under forest-edge-and-alley-mouth-and-bridge-undercroft Gothic-novel-and-fairy-tale-and-noir half-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to creep and prowl in usage.

Solidago, the late-summer wildflower of North American meadows whose tall sprays of small yellow flowers signal the end of the growing season. The color refers to the flower head at full bloom: a warm, slightly muted yellow-orange with the matte finish of small clustered florets. Cooler than mustard, deeper than dandelion. The state flower of Kentucky and Nebraska, a pollinator magnet, and the original native dye for early American homespun.