Stately Chive Hibiscus

An adjectival form of state, condition of dignity. Used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for the deep saturated jewel tones of formal ceremony — the deep blue of a robes-of-state, the deep red of a state-banquet velvet. Sits in the bold-and-formal corner alongside imperial and royal, with slightly less institutional weight.

Latin cepa, small-onion-grass-herb. As a color modifier, chive implies a slim-grass-onion-and-spring-fresh quality, the visual register of English-cottage-garden-and-French-bistro-chive hand-slim-grass-onion-and-spring-fresh English-cottage-garden-and-French-bistro-chive-and-fines-herbes chive-and-slim-grass-onion surfaces under English-cottage-garden-and-French-bistro-chive-and-fines-herbes Sussex-cottage-and-Lyon-bouchon spring-onion-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to dill and chervil 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.