Xanthe’s ‘Morotia’
The Colour of Living Purple
The Morotia Project aims to seed the word ‘morotia’ into everyday culture and secure its place in the language of colour.
The idea for The Morotia Project began after friends created a flower table at Xanthe’s memorial service and invited mourners to make their own ‘morotia’ buttonholes.
Living purple is a rainbow of hues…
and yet there’s no word for it in the English language.
But there could be.
Morotia /muh-ro-shuh
Noun, Adjective
Noun: A colour phenomenon within the red–violet region of the spectrum, characterised by depth, luminosity, and chromatic tonal gradients. The layered or shifting hues of two or more purple shades together.
Adjective: Exhibiting the chromatic or tonal, characteristics of morotia. A purple-hued object or scene which evokes a meditative, spiritual, or emotional response.
Etymology: Coined in the early twenty-first century by Xanthe Barton (2007–2025).
“Monet was the master of morotia.”
“Look at that morotia sunset!”
The Morotia Sphere
(After Philipp otto Runge)
The Violet-Light Pole
The Crimson-Light Pole
Equatorial Cross-Section
Vertical Cross-Section (Tyrian-Raisin Axis)
“This precious colour which gleams with the hue of a dark rose.”
Pliny, 24-79 AD
For Xanthe, purple was more than just a colour.
It Was the best way to spend the day, Every day.
Morotia was born during a family game of ‘I Spy A Colour.’
Xanthe kept us all guessing. Was it the chartreuse vase? The teal table cloth? “The morotia flowers”, she declared. Mar - what?
“There’s no such word!” protested her siblings...
…Which didn’t make morotia any less real.
Xanthe saw it in the garden...
And in Art
…and was inspired by the infinite possibilities of morotia to give it a name.
Xanthe’s two passions were music and poetry. If purple were a musical note, morotia would be the melody.
- Naming a purple flower as dark, light, or deep morotia, is to recognise its place in the living spectrum of purple.
- Each new morotia label expands this spectrum, enabling the word to become part of the cultural language of colour.
- And Xanthe’s legacy will live on.
The Morotia Botanica
Electric Morotia
Deep Morotia
Burnt Morotia
Light Morotia
Atmospheric Morotia
Polventon’s ‘Xanthe’s Morotia’
Created by Cyril Watkins, 2026
Morotia Analyzer
Drop in any photograph to see where its colours — if any — fall within the morotia spectrum, read by hue, saturation, and chromatic complexity. /məˈrəʊtiə/