Quercus sapotifolia ranges through the mountains and foothills of eastern and southern Mexico and through Central America as far as central Panama, between 250 and 2,000 meters elevation. In Mexico it is found in the southern
Sierra Madre Oriental,
Sierra Madre de Oaxaca, eastern
Sierra Madre del Sur, as well as the
Chiapas Highlands and
Sierra Madre de Chiapas in the states of Hidalgo, Veracruz, Puebla, Oaxaca, and Chiapas. It is also found in the highlands of Central America, including the Sierra Madre de Chiapas and Guatemalan Highlands of Guatemala, the
Maya Mountains of Belize, the
Chortis Highlands of El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and the
Cordillera de Talamanca of Costa Rica and western Panama. It grows in
cloud forests,
pine-oak forests, open pine woodlands. It often grows on coarse soils derived from sandstones, rapidly-draining igneous rocks with high quartz content, and
rhyolitic soils with high quartz and clay content. It can grow in disturbed areas, including areas subject to fires, where soils have been eroded or leached. ==References==