boreal

boreal

1. pertaining to the north. The zone of cold winters and short summers.
2. the period from 7500 to 5500 BC when cold winters and warm summers occurred in northern Europe.
3. forest made up mainly of conifers stretching across North America, Europe and Northern Asia directly south of the tundra.

Collins Dictionary of Biology, 3rd ed. © W. G. Hale, V. A. Saunders, J. P. Margham 2005