Pringle joined the staff of Royal Botanical Gardens in 1963, as RBG's first full-time scientist. Over the course of his career, he was
binomial author or co-author of many species of plants. He named or updated the taxonomy of at least 100 species, subspecies, and sub-families of various vascular plants, mostly in the
Gentian Family. He was also a published authority on the history of botanical exploration in Canada. He served as an
adjunct professor in the Biology Department of
McMaster University. In 2004, a newly described species of tree,
Macrocarpaea pringleana, was named in Dr. Pringle's honour.
M. pringleana is a one- to five-metre tall member of the Gentian Family from the Central
Andes, just north of the equator. In 2015, a newly discovered species of Gentian native to the
Himalayas,
Kuepferia pringlei, was named to honour Pringle. Dr. Pringle was also an historian interested in both science and black history. For example, in 2018 he co-authored A Noble and Independent Course, the Life of the Reverend Edward Mitchel, the first person of African descent to graduate from Dartmouth College and the
Ivy League (University of Chicago Press) with Dr. Forrester A. Lee. ==References==