The Watson Highlands taiga stretches across the southern Yukon, northern British Columbia, and the southwestern edge of the Northwest Territories, covering the Yukon Plateau's rolling hills and plateaus cut by broad valleys, with most elevations above 1,000 meters and discontinuous permafrost. Boreal forest of black and white spruce dominates, with lodgepole pine on drier sites, subalpine fir, dwarf birch, and willow higher up, and tundra of mountain avens, dwarf shrubs, and lichens above treeline. The climate is dry subarctic, with summers averaging about 11°C, cold winters, and low annual precipitation (roughly 225-400 mm). Fire is the main natural disturbance, and notably, south-facing slopes support unusual northern grasslands.

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