This ecoregion spans the entire island of Iceland in the North Atlantic, lying just south of the Arctic Circle on volcanic terrain with basaltic soils. Much of it is tundra and sparsely vegetated arctic desert, with vegetation concentrated in the coastal lowlands and interwoven with woodlands of white (downy) birch, Betula pubescens, much of it shrub-like and under two meters tall; rowan and tea-leaved willow are the other characteristic native woody plants, and forest now covers only about one percent of its original extent after centuries of timber cutting and sheep grazing. Most of the region has a tundra climate, with no month averaging above 10 degrees Celsius, though the Gulf Stream keeps conditions milder than the latitude would suggest. It is renowned for birdlife, with over three hundred species recorded, many of them migrants, and the pink-footed goose serves as its flagship species, while the Arctic fox is the only land mammal native to the island. For cold-climate gardeners, its hardy native genera, including birch (Betula), rowan (Sorbus aucuparia), and willow (Salix phylicifolia), are familiar ornamental and amenity plants.

At a glance

About the boreal forests/taiga biome

The vast northern forest belt of spruce, fir, pine, and larch, defined by long, severe winters and short growing seasons. Often underlain by permafrost and wetlands, the taiga forms one of the world’s largest terrestrial carbon stores.

Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion

Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's CHELSA-derived 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