Most Finnish forests belong to the Northern coniferous forest biome, also known as taiga.

This biome stretches across the northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere, all the way from North America to Northern Europe and Siberia.

Finland is among the few nations that exists almost completely inside the Northern coniferous forest vegetation zone. The Finnish taiga can be divided into spruce-dominated wet taiga forests and pine-dominated dry taiga forests.

The southwestern and southernmost parts of Finland are located on the border of the Northern coniferous forest and temperate broadleaf forest biomes. This border zone is displays a mixture of characteristics from both Northern coniferous forests and the broadleaf forests of Central Europe. This mixed biome is sometimes called the oak forest zone. Groves are an example of Finnish broadleaf forests.

The northernmost parts of Lapland consist of barren fells. It is a mixture of coniferous forest and tundra vegetation.

In the fells, lower regions are dominated by coniferous forest, which is replaced by forests of small, twisted mountain birch in higher elevations. The tops of fells are free of most vegetation, as they are located above the tree line. 

FINNISH FOREST TYPES

Feature	Pine forest	Spruce forest	Grove (Broadleaf forest)
Ecosystem	dry taiga	wet taiga	grove
Soil type	sand, gravel	till	nutrient-rich soil
Availability of water	bad	good	good
Amount of light on the forest floor	high	low	high during the spring, low during the summer
Primary tree species	pine	spruce	broadleaf trees
Undergrowth	lichens, mosses, lingonberry	sprigs, e.g. blueberry	shrubs, grasses, flowers, etc.
Animals	only a few animals	some animals	many animals
Distribution	all of Finland, especially eskers and rocky areas	all of Finland	Southern Finland