Lush Amor Hibiscus

Middle English lush, possibly from lascious, lascivious — a word that drifted from sensual ripeness toward visual abundance. Used as a color word since the eighteenth century for the saturated greens of well-watered foliage and the deep saturated jewel tones of velvet upholstery. Used across the deep and bold buckets where the hue is simultaneously dark and vivid.

Latin amor, love. As a color modifier, amor implies a Latin-love-and-amor-vincit-omnia quality, the visual register of Vergilian-amor-and-Catullus-amor hand-Latin-love-and-amor-vincit-omnia Vergilian-amor-and-Catullus-amor-and-Ovid-Ars-Amatoria amor-and-Latin-love surfaces under Vergilian-amor-and-Catullus-amor-and-Ovid-Ars-Amatoria Augustan-Rome-and-Renaissance-Italy Roman-love-light. Sits at the modifier-and-Latin end of the grid, parallel to vita and via 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.