This tree is native only east of the Mississippi, and centered in Appalachian regions, with a range similar to Castanea dentata (K). In Ky. montana is largely restricted to hills on infertile shales and sandstones, but there are a few unusual sites within more base-rich landscapes. These include a few highly leached narrow ridges or ancient high terraces in the Bluegrass region, and the edge of a swamp on slumped sandy material in TAYL. Reports of montana from the northwestern edges of the Bluegrass and from loess hills along the Mississippi need further verification (Gm, Little 1971, Stein et al. 2003, but montana is known from most of the southern tier of counties in Ill., Ind. and Ohio (PL), including Hamilton Co., Ohio (Hodgson 1998). B reported a coll. from OWEN (check US), and a coll. from the Kleber Sanctuary in OWEN (DHL) appears to be muehlenbergii introgressed with montana. Local introgression with michauxii is also suspected, and clear hybrids with alba are widely scattered. Q. prinus L. has often been considered the correct name for montana, but prinus has also been applied to michauxii, causing much confusion. The proposal of Whittemore & Nixon (2005) to reject prinus has been accepted (Brummitt 2007). Without acorns, montana can be identified by its leaf pubescence (FNA 3): "The closely appressed-stellate, asymmetric trichomes on the abaxial surface of the mature leaf, in combination with longer simple hairs along the midvein, are unique to Q. montana among North American species of Quercus. Immature leaves and densely shaded leaves sometimes exhibit a more erect trichome that could be confused with the longer, felty hairs of Q. michauxii, so it is important to evaluate mature sun leaves when possible."