Country

Latvia: one ecoregion. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

All of Latvia lies within the Sarmatic mixed forests, a vast temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion of over 325,000 square miles sweeping across northern Europe, ranked Nature Could Recover. The name describes the vegetation exactly: a transition forest where conifers such as pine and spruce mix with hardy broadleaf trees, the character zone between Europe's oak country to the south and the true boreal taiga to the north. The climate is cool and continental with real winters, moderated somewhat by the Baltic. For gardeners that means a palette built on cold-hardy mixed-forest species: conifers, birch-and-oak-country broadleaf trees, and a woodland understory of shade-tolerant shrubs and perennials, with winter hardiness the first filter for anything more southern.