Color your World: Orchid

Orchid is a bright rich purple color that is a representation of the color of the orchidaceae flower.

Various tones of orchid may range from grayish purple to purplish-pink to strong reddish purple.

The first recorded use of orchid as a color name in English was in 1915.

In 1949 Crayola launched their flagship assortment, the new No. 48 box.  The box was an expansion of their existing No. 24 which by this time had a fold-back lid that behaved like a hinge and opened to four rows of six crayons on a stadium design so that it would showcase the tips of every color when looked at from straight on, not just from the top as in earlier designs.  In the case of the No. 48, they expanded this to six rows of eight crayons on a similar stadium design using a similar style box with the fold-back lid.

But behind the scenes, this box was also the culmination of a redesign of their entire color line.  Not since the acquisition of Munsell had they so changed their colors this wide scale.  Inside the No. 48 were the colors:  AZURE BLUE, BLACK, BLUE, BLUE-GREEN, BLUE-VIOLET, BRILLIANT ROSE, BROWN, BURNT SIENNA, CARMINE RED, CERULEAN BLUE, COBALT BLUE, DARK GREEN, DARK-RED, FLESH, GOLD OCHRE, GREEN, INDIAN RED, LAVENDER, LIGHT GREEN, LIGHT MAGENTA, LIGHT TURQUOISE GREEN, LIGHT YELLOW, MAGENTA, MAHOGANY, MED. RED VIOLET, MEDIUM BLUE, MEDIUM ORANGE, MEDIUM ROSE, MEDIUM VIOLET, MEDIUM YELLOW, MIDDLE BLUE-GREEN, NEUTRAL GRAY, OLIVE GREEN, ORANGE, PRUSSIAN BLUE, RAW UMBER, RED, RED-ORANGE, RED-VIOLET, ROSE-PINK, SALMON, SILVER, TURQUOISE BLUE, VIOLET, WHITE, YELLOW, YELLOW-GREEN, YELLOW-ORANGE.

Medium Red Violet was renamed as orchid in 1958.