The Northeast Siberian coastal tundra stretches across the Arctic coastal plain of northeastern Sakha (Yakutia) in Russia, running roughly from the Lena River delta eastward to the Kolyma delta and bordering the Laptev and East Siberian Seas. It is a low-growing tundra of dwarf shrubs, grasses, sedges, and mosses, with polar and gray willow thickets, dwarf birch, and isolated stands of Dahurian larch reaching in from the south. The entire region sits on continuous permafrost, where only a shallow surface layer thaws each summer, producing thermokarst lakes, hummocks, polygonal ridges, and bogs under a cold subarctic-to-tundra climate. Its large river deltas are vital breeding grounds for migratory birds, including the critically endangered Siberian crane, and it holds the largest wild population of tundra reindeer. For gardeners, several cold-hardy genera native here are familiar in northern and rock gardens, among them mountain avens (Dryas), willows (Salix), and Vaccinium.

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.

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