Loud Lyra Goldenrod

Old English hlūd, making noise — borrowed metaphorically as a color word since the nineteenth century. Loud red, loud yellow: a color so saturated it announces itself without needing surrounding context. Sits in the bright-bucket extreme alongside electric and striking. Carries a slightly pejorative implication of excess.

Greek λύρα, lyre-of-Orpheus. As a color modifier, lyra implies a small-summer-constellation-and-Orpheus-lyre quality, the visual register of summer-Lyra-and-Orpheus-lyre hand-small-summer-constellation-and-Orpheus-lyre summer-Lyra-and-Orpheus-lyre-and-Bortle-1-sky lyra-and-small-summer-constellation-and-Orpheus-lyre surfaces under summer-Lyra-and-Orpheus-lyre-and-Bortle-1-sky July-and-August-summer-zenith ring-nebula-and-stellar-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to vega and cygnus 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.