Just south of the Arctic tundra in North America is a broad belt of boreal, coniferous, evergreen forest. It is often called taiga, the Russian name for similar coniferous forests growing in northern Eurasia. However, in large areas of northeastern Siberia, the dominant tree is larch, which is deciduous, whereas the North American taiga is mostly evergreen. Taiga is the most extensive coniferous forest in North America, covering nearly 30 percent of the land area north of Mexico. It grows across Alaska and Canada and southward into the northern Great Lakes states and New England. White spruce and balsam fir dominate much of the Canadian taiga.
See also: Eastern Deciduous Forest, Other Forests, Grasslands, Scrub and Desert, Tundra, Coastal Vegetation
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