Forests or woods of submediterranean climate regions and supramediterranean altitudinal levels, and of western Eurasian steppe and substeppe zones, dominated by deciduous or semideciduous thermophilous Quercus species or by other southern trees such as Carpinus orientalis, Castanea sativa or Ostrya carpinifolia. Thermophilous deciduous trees may, under local microclimatic or edaphic conditions, replace the evergreen oak forests in mesomediterranean or thermomediterranean areas, and occur locally to the north in central and western Europe.