''Quercus pringlei'' is a species of

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

native to northeastern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Description

''Quercus pringlei'' is a shrub or small tree, which generally grows from .5 or 1 to 4 meters tall, and occasionally up to 10 meters tall.

Range and habitat

Quercus pringlei is native to the

Sierra Madre Oriental The Sierra Madre Oriental () is a mountain range in northeastern Mexico. The Sierra Madre Oriental is part of the American Cordillera, a chain of mountain ranges (cordillera) that consists of an almost continuous sequence of mountain ranges that ...

and the isolated mountain ranges of the southern

Mexican Plateau The Central Mexican Plateau, also known as the Mexican Altiplano (), is a large arid-to-semiarid plateau that occupies much of northern and central Mexico. Averaging above sea level, it extends from the United States border in the north to the T ...

, from 1,500 to 2,400 meters elevation, in the states of Coahuila, Durango, Hidalgo, Nuevo León, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas. It is found in submontane scrub, which can range from sparse to dense, and into montane oak and pine–oak forest at higher elevations. It is commonly found with the oaks '' Quercus intricata, Quercus invaginata'', and '' Quercus pungens'', and with ''

Pinus cembroides ''Pinus cembroides'', also known as pinyon pine, Mexican pinyon, Mexican nut pine, and Mexican stone pine, is a pine in the pinyon pine group. It is a small pine growing to about with a trunk diameter of up to . It is native to western North Am ...

'', ''

Juniperus saltillensis Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' ( ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere as far south ...

Juniperus pinchotii ''Juniperus pinchotii'', commonly known as Pinchot juniper or redberry juniper, is a species of juniper native to south-western North America, in Mexico: Nuevo León and Coahuila, and in the United States: south-eastern New Mexico, central Texas ...

, Quercus intricata'', and '' Quercus striatula''. When its native forests are degraded by deforestation, fire, and/or

overgrazing Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to intensive grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It can be caused by either livestock in poorly managed agricultural applications, game reserves, or nature ...

, it is often replaced by sparse or dense

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant plant community, community found primarily in California, southern Oregon, and northern Baja California. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet winters and hot dry summers) and infrequent, high-intens ...

, with ''Q. striatula'', '' Agave gentryi'', '' Piptochaetium fimbriatum'', and other plants characteristic of lower-elevation xerophilous scrub communities.

References

{{Taxonbar, from= Q15338777 pringlei Endemic oaks of Mexico Flora of the Sierra Madre Oriental Flora of the Mexican Plateau Plants described in 1900