Scots pine
Photos: Георгий Виноградов (Georgy Vinogradov) (CC BY 4.0) · Дауд Арсанукаев (CC BY 4.0) · Linda Lötjönen (CC BY 4.0) on iNaturalist.
Boreal and Arctic biogeographical regions · Zones 3–6
Nordic & Baltic Boreal
Spruce, pine and birch, a hundred thousand lakes, a short bright summer and a long dark winter.
Coniferous forest over granite, bogs and mires, fjords in Norway, skerries along the Baltic, fells and tundra in the far north.
Get your local guide
Places in this region
Gardening
Short and intense under the midnight sun: potatoes, peas, cabbages, roots, rhubarb and berries; tomatoes in greenhouses; frost can come in any month in the north.
About gardening guides →Fishing
Pike and perch everywhere, Atlantic salmon and sea trout in the rivers, brown trout, grayling and Arctic char in cold lakes, whitefish and burbot through the ice.
About fishing guides →Foraging
Bilberries, lingonberries and cloudberries, chanterelles and ceps in huge numbers, birch sap in spring, sea buckthorn and rowan on the coasts. Everyman's right lets you pick almost anywhere.
About foraging guides →In season now · October
What you can pick right now
19 wild edibles typically ready in October in the Nordic & Baltic Boreal. Seasons shift a week or two with the weather — check each one before you go.
Has a dangerous look-alikeTreeSeptember – NovemberJuniper berries
Juniperus communis
Low spiky evergreen with needles in whorls of three, each with a white stripe on top; the 'berries' are fleshy blue cones that take two, sometimes three, years to ripen — so green and blue ones hang together.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: David Anderson · CC BY 4.0
BerrySeptember – NovemberLingonberry (partridgeberry)
Vaccinium vitis-idaea
A creeping evergreen 5–20 cm (2–8 in) tall with small, thick, glossy oval leaves whose edges roll under; turn a leaf over and look for scattered dark bristly dots on the pale underside. Firm red berries hang in small clusters at the branch tips, and the tiny bell flowers that preceded them had four fused petals.
How to know it & its look-alikes →
FruitSeptember – NovemberRose hips
Rosa spp.
The red-orange fruit left after a wild rose blooms, topped with a dried five-pointed crown of sepals.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Tom Norton · CC BY 4.0
BerryAugust – OctoberRowan berries
Sorbus aucuparia
A slim tree with smooth silvery-grey bark and feathery leaves of many toothed leaflets in pairs; big flat clusters of scarlet-orange berries, each about 1 cm (⅜ in) across with a tiny black five-pointed star at the tip.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Therese Phillips · CC BY 4.0
BerryAugust – OctoberSea buckthorn
Hippophae rhamnoides
A thorny shrub with narrow, silvery-grey, willow-like leaves and branches packed with bright orange berries 6–8 mm (¼ in) across, from late summer into winter. Only female bushes fruit.
How to know it & its look-alikes →
Has a dangerous look-alikeMushroomSeptember – NovemberYellowfoot (winter chanterelle)
Craterellus tubaeformis
A small brown funnel-shaped cap 1–4 cm (½–1½ in) across, often with a hole down the middle, on a hollow, yellow to orange stem; underneath, pale greyish-yellow forked ridges, not gills, running down the stem.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Christine Young · CC BY 4.0
13 more in season here — see the full foraging calendar →
Photographs are research-grade observations from iNaturalist, each credited to its photographer. They show a typical specimen, not every variation — never identify from a photo alone. Confirm with a regional field guide or an experienced forager before you eat anything wild.
In the water now · October
What's biting
The sport fish active in the Nordic & Baltic Boreal in October — where they hold, how to know one on the line, and the tactic that usually works. Check your licence and the current limits before you go.
FishJun–MarEuropean perch
Perca fluviatilis
Five to eight dark bars on a greenish flank, bright red-orange lower fins, and a spiny first dorsal fin with a black blotch at the back.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Дауд Арсанукаев · CC BY 4.0
FishJun–MarZander
Sander lucioperca
Slim and glassy-eyed, with grey-brown saddles, rows of black spots on the spiny dorsal fin, and long fang-like canine teeth.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Tomas Broucek · CC BY 4.0
FishJun–MarRoach
Rutilus rutilus
Silver with a blue-green back, bright red eyes, reddish lower fins, and a dorsal fin set directly above the pelvic fins.
Where and how to catch it →
Photographs are research-grade observations from iNaturalist, each credited to its photographer. Ranges and timing are typical, not guaranteed — 87 species are covered across North America, Europe and Africa.
In the garden now · October
Who else is working the garden
The insects and soil life out in the Nordic & Baltic Boreal in October. Most of them are on your side — learn the few that aren't before you reach for anything.
PollinatorMar–OctHoney bee
Apis mellifera
Golden-brown, banded, furry thorax, and pollen packed onto the hind legs in visible baskets.
What it does in the garden →
BeneficialApr–OctLady beetle
Coccinellidae
The adult everyone knows; the larva is the useful one — a spiky, alligator-shaped grey-and-orange creature that looks like a pest.
What it does in the garden →
BeneficialApr–OctGround beetle
Carabidae
Shiny black or bronze, fast-running, with grooved wing covers and long legs.
What it does in the garden →Photo: Gavin Slater · CC BY 4.0
Photographs are research-grade observations from iNaturalist, each credited to its photographer. Ranges and timing are typical, not guaranteed — 87 species are covered across North America, Europe and Africa.
The weekly note for the Nordic & Baltic Boreal
Enter your email and we'll tune it to your area once you look up a location.
Try it
Why Nordic & Baltic Boreal looks the way it does
Warmth and rain decide what can live in a place. The dial starts on the kind of land closest to this region — turn it warmer, colder, wetter or drier and see what would grow instead.
Boreal forest
Like northern Ontario
Cool and a bit rainy: long snowy winters and pointy spruce trees that keep their needles — moose and lynx live here.
Warmth and rain decide what can live in a place. They decide which plants can grow, and the plants decide which animals can live there.
Say it like this
- Age 2“Brrr, cold! Now make it hot. Now make it rain!”
- Age 4“Cold and dry makes tundra. Can you make a desert? Who lives there?”
- Age 6“Why can't a cactus grow in the rainforest, or a moose live in the desert? Warmth and rain decide what can live in a place.”
Go outside: Put a cup outside to catch the rain this week, and look at the thermometer each morning. Is your place warm or cool, wet or dry?
For Kids · The land and the sky