The plants of Labrador form an important part of the lives of the residents -- there are many berries, forestry, harvesting for craft production, and spectacular alpine vegetation for tourists' pleasure.

The vegetation ranges from boreal forest around Lake Melville and through much of the southern portion of the region to string bogs in the southeast and tundra vegetation in the northern part. The number of genera of flowering plants is about 234 and these are represented by about 674 species. Most of these species are typical of the boreal forest which stretches across the northern portion of North America and arctic-alpine species that extend south into Labrador, around the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the mountains of New England from the high arctic.

Plants are harvested and make up an important part of residents' lives. Labrador is famous for its redberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) which is known as mountain cranberry elsewhere in North America, lingonberry in Scandinavia, and partridgeberry in Newfoundland. There are also other berries collected as important parts of the culinary heritage. Logging takes place in southern Labrador and there has been some harvesting of reindeer moss for craft projects.

The above drawings are the work of Cynthia Colosimo (Robbins), Forteau, Labrador. Larger versions of these and others may be viewed in our Flora & Fauna photogallery.