The Urals montane forest and taiga ecoregion follows the spine of the Ural Mountains, a roughly 2,000 km range running north-south through the Russian Federation from the Arctic Ocean toward the Ural River, straddling the divide between European and Asian Russia. Its forests are dominated by coniferous taiga of Siberian fir, Siberian pine, Scots pine, Siberian spruce, Norway spruce, and Siberian larch, admixed with silver and downy birches, while the far north thins into sparse polar woodland with swamps, lichens, dwarf birch, and berry shrubs. The climate is continental, with long cold winters and short cool summers, and its temperature extremes grow more pronounced from north to south and west to east. The northern forests are safeguarded within the Virgin Komi Forests World Heritage Site, one of the most extensive tracts of boreal forest remaining in Europe, though intensive logging of the dark conifers has reshaped forest composition. Gardeners in cold continental climates may note that the warmer southern Urals support native ornamental hardwoods including English oak, Norway maple, small-leaved linden, and elm.

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