Tundra
A flat, cold treeless plain — life held to its minimum form by a long winter.
A tundra in a dream is the dream's image of life held to its minimum form by a long winter. The tundra is not dead; it is the smallest version of life the conditions will permit. The dream brings the tundra when something in your life — a depleted season, a long recovery, a stretch of austerity — is currently the most reduced form of itself that still counts as alive. A tundra walked with respect for the small flowering between the stones is the dream affirming the honest smallness. A tundra dismissed as nothing, with the walker missing every low plant in favour of looking for trees, is the dream noting that the life that is present is below the scale you have been looking at, and is going unseen because of the scale.