In this area, near the Suislaw National Forest on the Oregon coast, there are many indicators when spring starts to arrive. Trees and plants start to bud, the rain storms get more incidental and energetic, and 2 notable plants show themselves. In the forest, the small white trillium bloom. These small 3 petaled flowers only show for a short time, and are not plentiful. You have to look for them. In the wetlands on the other hand, it’s skunk cabbage, and it is way too plentiful to miss. If you live near a marshy area you may see, and smell, thousands of them.

So far, this year, I have seen exactly one trillium flower, not quite open. As for skunk cabbage, well there are thousands and more popping out of the gooey black dirt along marsh edges.

These 2 harbingers of spring, so different, yet both start to show up at about the same time and are a more certain indicator of spring time than some rodent back east.