Bald Cypress Tote
Bald Cypress Tote
Size
16 × 14½ × 5 in, with 24½ in straps (1 in wide). Holds up to 30 lb. The plate is printed about 6 × 10 in on the front.
A fruiting branch drawn part by part: the round, wrinkled cones, the feathery two-ranked leaves, a seed at natural size.
The tote
- The full plate with its name, legend and credits, printed on the front.
- Econscious organic cotton tote in Oyster: 8 oz (272 g/m²) 3/1 twill, open main compartment.
- Wash cold, inside out; hang to dry.
Shipping & production
Each one is made for you after you order, usually within 2–5 business days. Shipping is shown at checkout before you pay; items from different makers may arrive in separate boxes.
Returns
If your tote arrives damaged, misprinted or defective, contact us within 30 days of delivery with a photo and we'll send a replacement or a refund. Because every tote is made to order, we can't accept returns for a change of mind.
Plate 001
From the book
- Species
- Taxodium distichum
- As named in the book
- Taxodium distichum, Rich.
- Artist
- C. E. Faxon
- Book
- The Silva of North America, vol. X, pl. DXXXVII, 1896
“The glory of the maritime forests of the south … an object at once magnificent and mournful.”
Then and now
Then placed in its own family, Taxodiaceae; botanists now group it with the cypresses and redwoods.
Field notes
One of these trees on North Carolina's Black River is at least 2,624 years old.
Bald cypress is a conifer that behaves like a hardwood. Every autumn it turns rust-orange and drops its needles, standing bare all winter. That's the "bald."
Around it in standing water rise the knees: odd woody cones that have puzzled botanists since Sargent's day. Do they brace the tree in soft mud, or help its roots breathe in waterlogged ground? It's still debated.
What Faxon's drawing can't show is how long these trees live. In 2019, researchers coring trees in the swamps along North Carolina's Black River found a bald cypress at least 2,624 years old, the oldest known living tree in eastern North America. The same rot-proof wood that made cypress valuable got most of it cut: far less than one percent of the original old-growth cypress forest is left.