The tundra is found between the taiga and the permanent ice surrounding the North Pole. It is mostly north of the Arctic Circle. The tundra is open and windswept, a land of grasses, sedges, dwarfs, willows and mosses. It is also sometimes boggy. The annual precipitation for the tundra is very low, it is usually less than 25 cm.
Water is unavailable most of the year because it is frozen.
The surface is extremely boggy because permafrost usually exists within one mile of the surface. Permafrost is a layer of permanently frozen soil underground. During the warm season the top layer of the soil thaws, but the layers below, or subsoil, remain frozen. Winters in the tundra can be long, yet it has a brief, intense growing season because of very long daylight hours in the summer. The soil is frozen most of the year, but the melting of the ice provides the moisture needed for plant growth.