Unripe berries (Italian: rhamni immaturi) produces a pigment that is dark brown in bulk and turns to bright yellow in a thin layer.

[6] Most often when called sap green the color is in the form of a dyestuff, either direct from berry juice or as a lake precipitated with alum.

Thomas Jenner's A Book of Drawing, Limning, Washing (1652) categorizes "Pink & blew bice" amongst the greens (p. 38),[12] and specifies several admixtures of greenish colors made with pink—e.g.

Berries, ripe or unripe, and different versions of the lake are obtainable in powdered pigment form, although it is costly[5] compared to its substitutes.

It is fugitive and therefore not ideally suited for oil color, but has survived well in manuscript form due to the natural protections from light and moisture that a book offers.