Mid-February brings the emergence of Indian plum (Oemleria cerasiformis), the Pacific Northwest's earliest-blooming native shrub, with bright green leaves and drooping clusters of small white bell-shaped flowers. This plant serves as a critical early-season nectar source, often flowering when few other plants are in bloom, making it essential for newly-returning rufous hummingbirds and early-emerging native bees. The small greenish-white flowers hang in delicate racemes, and the plant's early leaf-out creates spots of fresh green among otherwise bare branches. Look for Indian plum along forest edges, streams, and disturbed areas from British Columbia to California, where it often forms dense thickets. The plant produces small plum-like fruits by late summer that were traditionally eaten by indigenous peoples, though they're quite bitter to modern palates.