Spartan Crag Hibiscus

Greek Spartiátēs, of Sparta — adjectival suffix referring to the Lacedaemonian warrior city. As a color modifier, spartan implies a saturated-and-disciplined-and-formal quality, the deep-rich color of Spartan-hoplite military-class crimson-and-bronze armor-and-cloak. Sits at the bold-and-formal end of the grid, parallel to austere and stern in tone.

Old Norse kragi, crag / rock. As a color modifier, crag implies a rough-rock-outcrop quality, the visual register of Lake-District-and-Snowdonia exposed volcanic-and-slate rock-outcrop face-and-scree mountain surfaces under dramatic Lake-District-and-Welsh-Snowdonia mountain-light. Sits at the modifier-and-place end of the grid, parallel to cliff and bluff in usage.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis — the showy mallow of Pacific gardens, the Hawaiian state flower, the source of the deep red sorrel tea sold across West Africa as bissap. The color refers to a fully open hibiscus petal at midday: a hot, slightly magenta red with the velvet texture of a single-day bloom. By evening the same flower has wilted; by morning it's gone.