DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Quercus prinus | Chestnut Oak 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Chestnut oak occurs primarily in the Appalachian Mountains and adjacent
hill country.  Chestnut oak is distributed from southwestern Maine west
through New York to extreme southern Ontario and extreme southeastern
Michigan, south through southern Indiana and extreme southern Illinois
to extreme northeastern Mississippi, east through northern Alabama to
Georgia, and north along the Piedmont to Delaware.  Chestnut oak is rare
on the Southeastern Coastal Plain, but occurs along the coast in
Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and in the New England states [38,49].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES10  White - red - jack pine
   FRES13  Loblolly - shortleaf pine
   FRES14  Oak - pine
   FRES15  Oak - hickory
   FRES18  Maple - beech - birch


STATES : 
     AL  CT  DE  GA  IL  IN  KY  ME  MD  MA
     MI  MS  NJ  NH  NY  NC  OH  PA  RI  SC
     TN  VA  VT  WV


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     ALPO  BISO  BLRI  CATO  CHCH  COLO
     CUGA  CUVA  DEWA  FOCA  FODO  GWMP
     GRSM  HOBE  MACA  MANA  MORR  NATR
     NERI  OBRI  PRWI  RICH  ROCR  SHEN


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
NO-ENTRY


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K095  Great Lakes pine forest
   K103  Mixed mesophytic forest
   K104  Appalachian oak forest
   K110  Northeastern oak - pine forest
   K111  Oak - hickory - pine forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
    21  Eastern white pine
    22  White pine - hemlock
    43  Bear oak
    44  Chestnut oak
    45  Pitch pine
    51  White pine - chestnut oak
    52  White oak - black oak - northern red oak
    53  White oak
    78  Virginia pine - oak
    79  Virginia pine
   108  Red maple
   110  Black oak


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Chestnut oak is an important species of eastern upland deciduous and
coniferous forests and may occur in pure stands [17].  It constitutes an
important component of the subcanopy and canopy layers of Table Mountain
pine (Pinus pungens) forests [80].  Chestnut oak codominates with
eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) on particularly steep east-facing
slopes in the Hudson River Valley in New York [24].

Because of the high mortality of American chestnut (Castanea dentata)
caused by the chestnut blight fungus (Endothia parasitica) introduced
from Asia in the early 1900's, the former Appalachian oak (Quercus
spp.)-American chestnut forest is now dominated by chestnut oak, white
oak, and northern red oak (Q. rubra) [29,33,49,79].  Keever [33]
recommends that former oak-American chestnut forests be named chestnut
oak forests.

The following published classifications list chestnut oak as dominant
or codominant:

Deciduous Forest [26]
Vegetation of the Great Smoky Mountains [79]
The Natural Communities of South Carolina [54]
Eastern Deciduous Forest [74]
Forest Vegetation of the Lower Alabama Piedmont [25]
The Natural Forests of Maryland:  an explanation of the vegetation map
    of Maryland [8]

Related categories for Species: Quercus prinus | Chestnut Oak