Identification Notes: Trillium

Trillium grandiflorum. Three petals, three sepals, three leaves — a plant committed to a theme.

Habitat: rich deciduous woods, often exactly where you stopped to catch your breath.

Bloom: white, ageing to pink, as if embarrassed by how well it turned out.

The rule: never pick it. The leaves are the lungs; take the flower and the rhizome may need seven years to forgive you. Seven. Some things keep score in decades.

Field note, May 9: forty-one in one hollow north of the Caps trail. Counted twice. Told no one the location. Telling you the count is already generous.