page_title: Boreal forest of Canada
section_title: Forest species
hierarchical_section_title: Boreal forest of Canada / Overview / Forest species
caption_attribution_description: English: Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis, the Fairy Slipper. The occidentalis variety is only found in western north America. Français&#160;: Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis, une orchidée des contrées boréales. La variété occidentalis est propre à l'ouest de l'Amérique du nord.
context_page_description: Canada's boreal forest is a vast region comprising about one third of the circumpolar boreal forest that rings the Northern Hemisphere, mostly north of the 50th parallel. Other countries with boreal forest include Russia, which contains the majority, the United States in its northernmost state of Alaska, and the Scandinavian or Northern European countries. In Europe, the entire boreal forest is referred to as taiga, not just the northern fringe where it thins out near the tree line. The boreal region in Canada covers almost 60% of the country's land area. The Canadian boreal region spans the landscape from the most easterly part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador to the border between the far northern Yukon and Alaska. The area is dominated by coniferous forests, particularly spruce, interspersed with vast wetlands, mostly bogs and fens. The boreal region of Canada includes eight ecozones. While the biodiversity of regions varies, each ecozone has a characteristic native flora and fauna.
  The boreal forest zone consists of closed-crown conifer forests with a conspicuous deciduous element.
context_section_description: Most trees native to the Canadian boreal are conifers, with needle leaves and cones.  These include: black spruce, white spruce, balsam fir, larch (tamarack), lodgepole pine, and jack pine.  A few are broad-leaved species: trembling and large-toothed aspen, cottonwood and white birch, and balsam poplar. There are large areas of black spruce, a species which is tolerant of shallow soil, permafrost and waterlogged substrates, although as a consequence they have relatively low biological productivity.
  Owing to the short growing season, generally infertile soils, generally shallow soils, and frequent waterlogging, most of these forest types are slow-growing species, which generally tend to predominate in stressed habitats.  Similarly, many of the understory shrubs are in the Ericaceae, a family known to tolerate acid, infertile and flooded habitats: examples include Labrador tea, sheep-laurel and blueberry.  Since nutrient levels are so low, overall, the productivity of forest trees is highly dependent on the rate at which mineral elements such as nitrogen and phosphorus are recycled by litterfall and decomposition. After logging, the loss of nutrients may convert forested areas into shrub barrens dominated by shrubs such as sheep-laurel. Many of the plant species are fire-dependent, since fire removes neighbouring plants, and recycles nutrients locked in organic matter.
  Although there are rather few species of trees in the boreal forest, there is a considerable diversity of other kinds of plants.  An accurate summary is difficult, since most compendia on plants are organized by political, rather than ecological boundaries; one exception addresses the flora of the Hudson Bay Lowland, but much of this area is not forested. One portion of the boreal forest can be used to illustrate plant diversity; consider the Flora of the Yukon. In this western part of the boreal forest, there are, for example 127 species of grass (Poaceae), 118 species of Asteraceae, 115 species of sedge (Cyperaceae), 93 species of crucifer (Brassicaceae), 52 species of Rosaceae, 37 species of Saxifragaceae and 36 members of the snapdragon family (Scrophulariaceae). Overall, the flora has 1112 species – there are even 15 species of orchids.
caption: The Calypso orchid grows in the shade of boreal forest.
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