The Alaska-St. Elias Range tundra spans a broad arc of northern mountains across Alaska, southwestern Yukon, and northwestern British Columbia, encompassing the Alaska Range and Wrangell-St. Elias Range and reaching the summit of Denali, North America's highest peak. Much of the ecoregion is rocky slopes, ice fields, and glaciers; where permanent snow and ice are absent, alpine tundra dominated by dwarf shrub communities, mountain avens, and heath-family shrubs prevails, with willows, alders, and dwarf birch on more protected slopes. The climate is alpine and glacierized North Pacific cordilleran, largely continental except for a maritime influence near Cook Inlet. The hoary marmot is the flagship species, and roughly 45% of the ecoregion is protected.

At a glance

About the tundra biome

Treeless polar and high-mountain landscapes of low shrubs, sedges, mosses, and lichens, where cold and a short growing season cap plant height. Soils are frequently frozen as permafrost, and these systems recover only slowly from disturbance.

National refinement sub-regions

Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion

Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 (1991-2020 climatology) via ArcGIS FeatureServer published current zone range, with the CHELSA mid-century warming delta applied for the projection. Plants whose stated range falls outside both the current and projected zone end up dropped; the rest land in one of the three buckets below.

Collections for this ecoregion

Curated multi-plant collections whose members all fit this ecoregion's zone range — no won't-grow members smuggled in. Overall fit class shown per collection is the weakest link across its members.

Related ecoregions