Large-flowered Trillium Tote, Oyster, front

Large-flowered Trillium Tote

$34.00
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Large-flowered Trillium Tote, Oyster, front

Large-flowered Trillium Tote

$34.00
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.

Everything in threes: three petals, three sepals, one whorl of three leaves.

Each one took seven to ten years to flower, from a seed planted by ants. Read the field notes ↓

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.

Shipping & Production

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 007

From the book

Species
Trillium grandiflorum
As named in the book
Snow Trillium.
Artist
Mary Vaux Walcott
Book
North American Wild Flowers, vol. III, pl. 240, 1925
“As the flowers fade they are flushed with a dainty pink color.”

Then and now

Walcott called it the snow trillium; that name now belongs to a smaller species, Trillium nivale.

All sources →

Field notes

Each one took seven to ten years to flower, from a seed planted by ants.

Walcott painted it life-size: three white petals, three green sepals, one whorl of three leaves. Trillium: everything in threes. She noticed what anyone who has watched a hillside of them knows: "As the flowers fade they are flushed with a dainty pink color."

A trillium in bloom is the work of a decade. The seed needs a couple of years just to sprout; the young plant then spends seven to ten years, sometimes far longer, building its rhizome before it can afford a flower.

Its planting is done by ants. Each seed carries a small fleshy cap, an elaiosome, that ants eat. They haul the seeds home and toss them on the nest's refuse pile, good ground for a trillium to start. All that slowness makes them fragile: picking the flower takes its only leaves, and where deer are thick, whole woods stop blooming.

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