Shades of green

Green in nature

Green is common in nature, especially in plants. Many plants are green mainly because of a complex chemical known as chlorophyll which is involved in photosynthesis. Many shades of green have been named after plants or are related to plants. Due to varying ratios of chlorophylls (and different amounts as well as other plant pigments being present), the plant kingdom exhibits many shades of green in both hue (true color) and value (lightness/darkness). The chlorophylls in living plants have distinctive green colors, while dried or cooked portions of plants are different shades of green due to the chlorophyll molecules losing their inner magnesium ion.

Artichoke

Artichoke is a color that is a representation of the color of a raw fresh uncooked artichoke. Another name for this color is artichoke green.

The first recorded use of "artichoke green" as a color name in English was in 1905.

Artichoke green (Pantone)

This is the color called artichoke green in Pantone. The source is Pantone 18-0125 TPX

Asparagus

Asparagus is a tone of green that is named after the vegetable. Crayola created this color in 1993 as one of the 16 to be named in the Name the Color Contest.

It is also the color of a wild asparagus plant blowing in the wind of the 1949 classic film Sands of Iwo Jima.

Another name for this color is asparagus green. The first recorded use of "asparagus green" as a color name in English was in 1805.

Avocado

Avocado is a color that is a representation of the color of the outer surface of an avocado.

The color avocado is a dark yellow-green color.

Avocado was a common color for metal surfaces (including automobiles and household appliances), as well as the color harvest gold, during the whole decade of the 1970s. They were both also popular colors for shag carpets. Both colors went out of style by the early 1980s.

Dark green

Dark green is a dark shade of green. A different shade of green has been designated as "dark green (X11)" for certain computer uses.

Fern green

Fern green is a color that resembles ferns. A Crayola crayon named fern was created in 1998, which is a lighter shade of the top color shown on the right.

The first recorded use of fern green as a color name in English was in 1902.

Forest green

Forest green refers to a green color said to resemble the color of the trees and other plants in a forest.

The first recorded use of forest green as the name of a color in the English language was in 1810.

Hooker's green

Hooker's green is a dark green color created by mixing Prussian blue and Gamboge. The color is displayed at right.

Hooker's green takes its name from botanical artist William Hooker (1779–1832) who first created a special pigment for leaves.

Jungle green

Displayed at right is the color jungle green. In 1990, Crayola named and formulated this specific tone of jungle green.

The first recorded use of jungle green as a name of a color in the English language was in 1926.

Laurel green

Laurel green is a medium light hue of greenish gray similar to asparagus, but lighter.

The first recorded use of laurel green as a name of a color in the English language was in 1705.

Light green

Light green is a light tint of green.

"Light green environmentalism" is a concept that adherence to environmentalism is best promoted as an individual consumer choice. The term lite green environmentalism is used by environmentalists as a synonym for greenwashing.

Mantis

Mantis is a color that is a representation of the color of a praying mantis.

The first use of mantis as a color name in English was when it was included as one of the colors on the Xona.com color list, promulgated in 2001.

Mint green

Mint green is a pale tint of green that resembles the color of mint green pigment, and was a popular color in the 1950s, and 1990s.

Moss green

Moss green is a tone of green that resembles moss.

The first recorded use of moss green as a color name in English was in 1884.

Myrtle green

Myrtle green, also called myrtle, is a color which is a representation of the color of the leaves of the myrtle plant.

The first recorded use of myrtle green as a color name in English was in 1835.

Myrtle is the official designation of the green stripes on Waterloo Rugby Club's shirts, the green of Hunslet/Hunslet rugby league club, the green (along with the cardinal red) stripes of the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the green of the blazers, sports kit and scarf of St. Aloysius' College, Glasgow. It is also one of the school colors of Lane Technical College Prep High School in Chicago, the other being old gold.

The baggy green, the cricket cap worn by Australian Test cricketers since around the turn of the twentieth century, is myrtle green in color.

Pine green

Pine green is a rich shade of spring green that resembles the color of pine trees. It is an official Crayola color (since 1903) that is this exact shade in the Crayola crayon, but in the markers, it is known as crocodile green. {Prev. statement has yet to be verified}

The first recorded use of pine tree as a color name in English was in 1923.

Sap green

Sap green is a green pigment that was traditionally made of ripe buckthorn berries. However, modern colors marketed under this name are usually a blend of other pigments, commonly with a basis of Phthalocyanine Green G.

Shamrock green (Irish green)

Shamrock green is a tone of green that represents the color of shamrocks, a symbol of Ireland. Another name for this color is shamrock.

The first recorded use of shamrock as a color name in English was in the 1820s (exact year uncertain).

This green is also defined as Irish green Pantone 347.

It is customary in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States to wear this or any other tone of green on St. Patrick's Day, March 17.

The Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association use this shade for their uniforms, logos and other memorabilia.

Tea green

Tea green is a light shade of green. It is a representation of the color of brewed green tea, i.e., the color of the hot green tea after the green tea leaves have been brewed in boiling water.

The first recorded use of tea green as a color name in English was in 1858.

Teal

Teal is displayed at right. It is a dark cyan color that is a representation of the color of the neck coloring of a duck called the common teal.

Olive

Olive is the shade of dark yellow-green found on green olives. It has been commonly used by militaries around the world as a color for uniforms and equipment.

Green

The color defined as green in the RGB color model, displayed on the right, is the brightest possible green that can be reproduced on a computer screen, and is the color named green in X11. It is one of the three primary colors used in the RGB color space along with red and blue. The three additive primaries in the RGB color system are the three colors of light chosen such as to provide the maximum range of colors that are capable of being represented on a computer or television set.

This color is also called regular green. It is at precisely 120 degrees on the HSV color wheel, also known as the RGB color wheel (Image of RGB color wheel). Its complementary color is magenta.

Another name for this color is green as opposed to the darker HTML/CSS green and the deeper pigment green, both shown below.

Green takes up a large portion of the CIE chromaticity diagram because it is in the central area of human color perception.

Green (HTML/CSS color)

The color defined as green in HTML/CSS color standard is displayed at right. It is the color called green, low green or medium green in many of the older eight-bit computer palettes.

Another name for this color is green W3C.

Dark green (X11)

This is the X11/HTML color dark green.

Green (CMYK) (pigment green)

The color defined as green in the CMYK color system used in printing, also known as pigment green, is the tone of green that is achieved by mixing process (printer's) cyan and process (printer's) yellow in equal proportions. It is displayed at right.

The purpose of the CMYK color system is to provide the maximum possible gamut of color reproducible in printing.

The color indicated is only approximate as the colors of printing inks may vary.

Green (NCS) (psychological primary green)

The color defined as green in the NCS or Natural Color System is shown at right (NCS 2060-G). The natural color system is a color system based on the four unique hues or psychological primary colors red, yellow, green, and blue. The NCS is based on the opponent process theory of vision.

The Natural Color System is widely used in Scandinavia.

Green (Munsell)

The color defined as green in the Munsell color system (Munsell 5G) is shown at right. The Munsell color system is a color space that specifies colors based on three color dimensions: hue, value (lightness), and chroma (color purity), spaced uniformly in three dimensions in the elongated oval at an angle shaped Munsell color solid according to the logarithmic scale which governs human perception. In order for all the colors to be spaced uniformly, it was found necessary to use a color wheel with five primary colors—red, yellow, green, blue and purple.

The Munsell colors displayed are only approximate as they have been adjusted to fit into the sRGB gamut.

Green (Pantone)

Green (Pantone) is the color that is called green in Pantone.

The source of this color is the "Pantone Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color # green C, EC, HC, PC, U, or UP—green.

Green (Crayola)

Green (Crayola) is the color called green in Crayola crayons.

Green was one of the original Crayola crayons introduced in 1903.

Army green

The color army green has been used in militaries since at least World War II, and possibly before, though the precise tint varies considerably between and within different nations. (See olive drab and olive green)

Bottle green

Bottle green is a dark shade of green, similar to pine green. It is a representation of the color of green glass bottles.

The first recorded use of bottle green as a color name in English was in 1816.

Bottle green is a color in Prismacolor marker and pencil sets. It is also the color of the uniform of the Police Service of Northern Ireland replacing the Royal Ulster Constabulary's "rifle green" colored uniforms in 2001. It also the green used in uniforms for South Sydney High School in Sydney.

"Bottle green" is also the color most associated with guide signs and street name signs in the United States.

Bottle green is also the background color of the Flag of Bangladesh, as defined by the government of Bangladesh. Another name for this color is Bangladesh green.

Bright green

Displayed on the right is the color bright green. Bright green is a bright shade of green. It is on the color wheel approximately one-third of the way between chartreuse green and harlequin (color #3FFF00) (closer to chartreuse green than to harlequin). Bright green represents a visual stimulus of 556 nanometers on the visual spectrum as measured on the CIE chromaticity diagram. The X11 color green is somewhat similar to bright green, with a hex triplet of 00FF00, compared to bright green's triplet of 66FF00.

The color bright green may be used to represent bright green environmentalism or the Viridian design movement.

Bright mint

Displayed at right is the colour bright mint

Brunswick green

Brunswick green is a common name for green pigments made from copper compounds, although the name has also been used for other formulations that produce a similar hue, such as mixtures of chrome yellow and Prussian blue. The pigment is named after Braunschweig, Germany (also known as Brunswick in English) where it was first manufactured. It is a deep, dark green, which may vary from intense to very dark, almost black.

The first recorded use of Brunswick green as a color name in English was in 1764. Another name for this color is English green. The first use of English green as a synonym for Brunswick green was in 1923.

Deep Brunswick green is commonly recognized as part of the British racing green spectrum, the national auto racing color of the United Kingdom.

A different color, also called Brunswick green, was the color for passenger locomotives of the grouping and then the nationalized British Railways. There were three shades of these colors and they are defined under British Standard BS381C – 225, BS381C – 226, and BS381C – 227 (ordered from lightest to darkest). The Brunswick green used by the Nationalised British Railways – Western Region for passenger locomotives was BS381C – 227 (rgb(30:62:46)). RAL6005 is a close substitute to BS381C – 227. A characteristic of these colors was the ease for various railway locations to mix them by using whole pots of primary colors – hence the ability to get reasonably consistent colors with manual mixing half a century and more ago.

The color used by the Pennsylvania Railroad for locomotives was often called Brunswick green, but officially was termed dark green locomotive enamel (DGLE). This was a shade of green so dark as to be almost black, but which turned greener with age and weathering as the copper compounds further oxidized.

Cal Poly Pomona green

Cal Poly Pomona green is one of the two official colors of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona). The official university colors are green (PMS 349) and gold (PMS 131). The Cal Poly Pomona Office of Public Affairs created the Cal Poly Pomona colors for web development and has technical guidelines, copyright and privacy protection; as well as logos and images that developers are asked to follow in the university's guidelines for using official Cal Poly Pomona logos. If web developers are using green on a university website, they are encouraged to use Cal Poly Pomona green. It is prominently used for representing Cal Poly Pomona's athletic teams, the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos.

Castleton green

Castleton green is one of the two official colors of Castleton University in Vermont. The official college colors are green (PMS 343) and white. The Castleton University Office of Marketing & Communications created the Castleton colors for web and logo development and has technical guidelines, copyright and privacy protection; as well as logos and images that developers are asked to follow in the college's guidelines for using official Castleton logos. If web developers are using green on a university website, they are encouraged to use Castleton green. It is prominently used for representing Castleton's athletic teams, the Castleton Spartans.

Celadon

Celadon /ˈsɛlədɒn/ is a pale greyish shade of green.

According to dictionary.com, this pale green color can be traced to French literature of the 17th century. Celadon was the name of a character who wore green clothes in Honoré d'Urfé's novel L’Astree.

A glaze of this color is commonly used in Chinese and Korean pottery. It is normally associated with a pale sea-green pigment though the style originally was made with much darker pigments. The pale green pigment came from the artisans who used specific clays and potting techniques to create the style now associated with the name. It was most commonly used in Chinese, Korean and Japanese art and spread to the other Asian cultures. Celadon, as it is known by the west, or Qingci, is an ancient type of Chinese glaze that was particularly favored at the Song court. These pots have blue-green glazes and are made in elegant shapes and were produced in kilns from all over China. Korean celadon pottery has been described by ancient Chinese artisans as having a quiet elegance whose color is "beyond description", in that it must be experienced to be understood, and its simplicity of form and style has been compared to the spirit of Zen Buddhism.

Dartmouth green

Dartmouth green is the official color of Dartmouth College, adopted in 1866. It was famously chosen after a crew race with a number of other colleges for being "the only decent color that had not been taken already." It is prominently used as the name of the Dartmouth College athletic team, the Dartmouth Big Green. The Dartmouth athletic teams adopted this new name after the college officially discontinued the use of its unofficial mascot, the Dartmouth Indian, in 1974.

Dartmouth High School in Dartmouth, Massachusetts traditionally uses the same colors as Dartmouth College for its athletics teams, which still retain the Indian nickname and mascot.

Dartmouth green and white are the main colors of Lithuanian basketball club Žalgiris Kaunas.

Emerald

Emerald, also called emerald green, is a tone of green that is particularly light and bright, with a faint bluish cast. The name derives from the typical appearance of the gemstone emerald.

The first recorded use of emerald as a color name in English was in 1598.

Ireland is sometimes referred to as the Emerald Isle due to its lush greenery. The May birthstone is emerald. Seattle is sometimes referred to as the Emerald City, because its abundant rainfall creates lush vegetation. In the middle ages, The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus was believed to contain the secrets of alchemy. "Emerald City", from the fictional story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, is a city where everything from food to people are emerald green. However, it is revealed at the end of the story that everything in the city is normal colored, but the glasses everyone wears are emerald tinted. The Green Zone in Baghdad is sometimes ironically and cynically referred to as the Emerald City. The Emerald Buddha is a figurine of the sitting Buddha, made of green jade (rather than emerald), clothed in gold, and about 45 cm tall. It is kept in the Chapel of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew) on the grounds of the Grand Palace in Bangkok. The Emerald Triangle refers to the three counties of Mendocino, Humboldt, and Trinity in Northern California, United States because these three counties are the biggest marijuana producing counties in California and also the US. A county-commissioned study reports pot accounts for up to two-thirds of the economy of Mendocino. Emerald Cities: Urban Sustainability and Economic Development is a book published in 2010 by Joan Fitzgerald, director of the Law, Policy and Society Program at Northeastern University, about ecologically sustainable city planning.

During the 19th century, the arsenic-containing dye Paris green was marketed as emerald green.

Feldgrau

Feldgrau (field grey) was the color of the field uniform of the German Army from late 1907 until 1945, and the East German NVA armies. Metaphorically, feldgrau used to refer to the armies of Germany (the Imperial German Army and the Heer [army] component of the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht).

GO Transit green

GO green was the color used for the brand of GO Transit, the regional commuter service in the Greater Toronto Area. Between 1967 and 2013, the brand and color that has adorned each of its train, buses, and other property generally remained unchanged. It also matched the shade of green used on signs for highways in Ontario. In July 2013, GO Transit updated its look to a two-tone color scheme.

Green-yellow is a mixture of the colors green and yellow. It is a web color. It is a light tint of chartreuse.

"Green-yellow" is an official Crayola crayon color which was formulated in 1958.

Green-yellow is near the center of the light spectrum visible to the human eye, and is very eye-catching. For this reason many emergency vehicles and uniforms exhibit green-yellow.

Harlequin

Harlequin is a color described as being located between green and yellow (closer to green than to yellow) on the color wheel. On color plate 17 in the 1930 book A Dictionary of Color (see reference below), the color harlequin is shown as being a highly saturated rich color at a position halfway between chartreuse and green. Thus in modern color terminology, harlequin is the color halfway between green and chartreuse green on the RGB color wheel.

The first recorded use of harlequin as a color name in English was in 1923.

Harlequin is a pure spectral color at approximately 552 nanometers on the visible spectrum when plotted on the CIE chromaticity diagram.

Silver Patron tequila is sold in harlequin-colored boxes.

Harlequin is also an adjective used to describe something that is colored in a pattern, usually a diamond-shaped pattern, as in the dress traditionally associated with harlequins. Similarly, it can mean anything multicolored or prismatic, such as opals or other precious gems which are highly variegated in color and hue. In the early 2000s, a Harlequin Color paint was invented for automobiles that appears different colors from different angles of view.

Hunter green

Hunter green is a color that is a representation of the color worn by hunters in the 19th century. Most hunters began wearing the color olive drab instead of hunter green about the beginning of the 20th century. Today, some hunters still wear hunter green clothes or hunter green bandanas.

The first recorded use of hunter green as a color name in English was in 1892.

Hunter green is the official primary color of the Green Bay Packers since 1957, the New York Jets since 1998, one of the two official colors of Ohio University and Oswego State, and one of the two official colors of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.

In the bandana code of the gay leather subculture, a hunter green bandana, if worn on the left, indicates that one is a leather daddy, whereas if a hunter green bandana is worn on the right, it indicates that one is looking for a leather daddy, i.e., looking for a daddy-boy relationship. The color displayed at upper right matches the color that is used in the bandana code.

Prison uniforms issued by the New York State Prison are colored hunter green.

India green

India green, the color of the lower band of the Indian National Flag, represents fertility and prosperity.

Islamic green

Islamic green is the shade of green used in the Flag of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

Green symbolizes Islam because the tribe of the Islamic prophet Muhammad had a green banner and because green represented paradise to desert dwelling bedouin tribes when they gathered at an oasis.

Jade

Jade, also called jade green is a representation of the color of the gemstone called jade, although the stone itself varies widely in hue.

The color name jade green was first used in Spanish in the form piedra de ijada in 1569.

The first recorded use of jade green as a color name in English was in 1892.

Kelly green is an American term. The name derives from the fact that the surname Kelly, as well as the color green, are both popular in Ireland. The first recorded use of the term kelly green as a color name in English was in 1917.

Malachite

Malachite, also called malachite green, is a color that is a representation of the color of the mineral malachite.

The first recorded use of malachite green as a color name in English was in the 1200s (exact year uncertain).

Midnight green

Midnight green (sometimes called Eagle green) is the official primary color of the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League.

MSU green

Green and white are the primary school colors representing Michigan State University. The university board of trustees officially standardized MSU green as part of a larger university branding effort, replacing a lighter green (PMS 341) used from 1997–2010. The official color was chosen based on the traditional darker Spartan green found on the original university varsity letter jackets and marching band jackets. The official green of Michigan State University is represented by Pantone Matching System ink color 567 (PMS 567).

Neon green

Neon green is a bright tone of green used in psychedelic art and in fashion.

Office green

The conservative shade of green shown on the right, office green, was the color designated as "green" in HTML, as opposed to the brighter X11 green.

Pakistan green (X11 Dark green)

Pakistan green is a shade of dark green, used in web development and graphic design. It is also the background color of the Flag of Pakistan. It is almost identical to the HTML/X11 dark green in sRGB and HSV values.

Paris green

Paris green is a color that ranges from pale and vivid blue green to deeper true green. It comes from the inorganic compound copper (II) acetoarsenite and was once a popular pigment in artists' paints.

Persian green

Persian green is a color used in Persian pottery and Persian carpets in Iran.

The first recorded use of Persian green as a color name in English was in 1892.

Rifle green

The color rifle green is displayed at right.

The source of this color is the Pantone Textile Paper eXtended (TPX) color list, color No. 19-0419 TPX—Rifle green.

The first recorded use of rifle green as a color name in English was in 1858.

Rifle green is so named from the distinctive color of the uniform of rifle regiments (a form of light infantry) of a number of European armies, and is still used as such by rifle regiments in many Commonwealth armies, such as the Rifles and Royal Gurkha Rifles of the British Army and the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada.

Rifle green was originally adopted by rifle regiments in the 18th century. As the traditional role of riflemen was that of marksmen and skirmishers who attacked behind the cover of trees, a dark green uniform was adopted as an early form of camouflage, as opposed to the colorful uniforms worn by other soldiers of the period. The vegetable based dyes used during the 18th and early 19th centuries were not fast, frequently fading after exposure to the elements to lighter shades of green or even brown. While this had advantages in terms of reduced visibility on active service, it did not make for a smart appearance on the peace-time parade ground. Accordingly, the color of the rifleman's uniform was progressively darkened until it approached black. After 1890 the development of chemical dyes permitted the adoption of the stable shade of rifle green now worn. In the U.S. armed forces, the green beret may be worn only by soldiers awarded the Special Forces Tab, signifying they have been qualified as Special Forces soldiers. The Special Forces beret is officially designated "beret, man's, wool, rifle green, army shade 297".

Rifle green was the official uniform color of the Canadian Forces (CF) after unification; it was thereafter generally referred to as "CF green"; indeed, the service dress uniform of the day was referred to as "CF greens". After the introduction of the distinct environmental uniform (DEU), rifle green remained as the uniform color of the winter land environment DEU; a short-lived tan uniform was worn in summer. After the demise of the tans, the rifle green DEU was worn year-round. Rifle green was also the color of the uniform worn by the Northern Irish Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) until 2001 where the RUC was renamed the PSNI and while the uniform color remained the same, terminology changed to "bottle green".

Rifle green is 19–0419 TPX in the Pantone palette, or hex code 444C38 in the sRGB color space, as shown above.

Russian green

The color Russian green is displayed at right.

The first recorded use of Russian green as a color name in English was in the 1830s (exact year uncertain). The term appears to refer to the medium shade of green worn by most regiments of the Imperial Russian Army from 1700 to 1914.

Sacramento State green

In 2004, California State University, Sacramento rebranded itself as Sacramento State, while keeping the official name as the long form. In the process of rebranding a new logo was selected, and in 2005 it formalized the colors which it would use.

Screamin' green

The color Screamin' Green is shown at right.

This color was renamed from Ultra Green by Crayola in 1990.

This color is supposed to be a fluorescent color, but there is no mechanism to display fluorescence on a flat computer screen.

Sea green

Sea green is a color that resembles the sea floor as seen from the surface.

Spanish green

Spanish green is the color that is called "verde" (the Spanish word for "green") in the Guía de coloraciones (Guide to colorations) by Rosa Gallego and Juan Carlos Sanz, a color dictionary published in 2005 that is widely popular in the Hispanophone realm.

UP forest green

At the right is one of the official colors used by the University of the Philippines, designated as "UP forest green". It is based on the approved color specifications to be used for the seal of the university.