The Southern Hudson Bay taiga wraps around the southern and western shores of Hudson Bay and James Bay, spanning northern Ontario, Manitoba, and western Quebec. It encompasses the Hudson Bay Lowland, North America's most extensive wetland complex, where a patterned mosaic of coastal wetlands and interior peatlands gives way to black spruce, tamarack, and stunted boreal forest. The subarctic climate brings brief, cool summers and very cold winters, with permafrost grading from continuous in the north to seasonal in the south. These vast peatlands form one of Earth's largest carbon stores, and the largely intact region supports North America's southernmost polar bears, caribou, and millions of migratory birds.

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 NRCan Plant Hardiness Zone 1981-2010 GeoTIFF 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