Lustrous Bog Goldenrod

From the Latin lustrare, to illuminate — used as a color word since the seventeenth century for hues with the slight specular shine of polished metal or silk. Lustrous green, lustrous gold: the implication is moderate-to-high saturation combined with surface reflectivity. Sits at the bright-and-glossy corner alongside gleaming.

Irish bog, soft-and-wet. As a color modifier, bog implies a peat-soaked-and-soft quality, the visual register of Connemara-and-Yorkshire-Moors peat-bog blanket-bog-and-cotton-grass wet-and-sphagnum-moss surfaces under wet West-of-Ireland atmospheric overcast. Sits at the modifier-and-place end of the grid, parallel to fen and moor 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.