The Interior Alaska-Yukon lowland taiga stretches across central and northern interior Alaska into northwestern Yukon, spanning lowlands and flats from sea level to about 600 meters between the Brooks Range and the Alaska Range. Its boreal forest is dominated by white and black spruce, with birch, aspen, balsam poplar, willow, and alder along rivers, all underlain by continuous to discontinuous permafrost and broken by vast wetland complexes such as the Yukon Flats. The climate is high subarctic and continental, with short warm summers and long, severely cold winters. Lightning-ignited fires drive a shifting mosaic of forest succession, and the region remains largely intact, providing critical habitat for the migratory Porcupine caribou herd.

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.

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