A pair of Mallard ducks surveys the shore of an awakening pond in early spring. Skunk cabbages, with their showy yellow bracts, spikes of tiny flowers, and large green leaves, emerge from the muck at the pond's edge. Western trillium blooms along the drier shore, usually in partial shade of forest cover. Coastal native people used the large leaves of skunk cabbage to line their berry baskets and drying racks and to protect food in steaming pits. Skunk cabbage emerges in early March with trillium following closely behind.