This is a relatively short tree, up to 5-10 m tall, sometimes shrubby and stoloniferous (FNA 3). The species is known from disjunct regions of the east-central states, in remnants of scrubby (often pyric) vegetation on a range of soils (not typically calcareous as for muehlenbergii). There have been reports from Ky. in FNA 3 and several other sources, but no colls. have been located (M). The closest known plants are in the Ridge-and-Valley region of w. Va. (HW+). Before fire suppression, it might have been expected on open rocky summits of the Cumberland Mts., where it was reported from BELL by Defries (1884a,b). Shaler (1884) also listed it: "There is another oak, called by the people chinquapin oak, and which I have classed as Q. prinoides, on account of its very great resemblance to chinquapin oak, but which often grows fifty feet high in the mountains of Kentucky." Typical prinoides has often been confused with stunted forms of muehlenbergii. Its acorns are similar but produced on much smaller plants. It is a low shrubby species, typically reaching only 1-3 m tall, and sometimes spreading by rhizomes. Its leaf blades have only (3) 5-7 (9) veins on each side, compared to (8) 10-13 (16) in muehlenbergii, and their bases are usually cuneate (versus usually truncate). Variation in leaf pubescence needs further study (FNA 3).