Cyrus Guernsey Pringle (May 6, 1838 – May 25, 1911) was an American botanist who spent a career of 35 years cataloguing the plants of North America.

[2] In the early part of his life he was interested in the Quaker religious doctrine of the Friends, and it was through these meetings that he met Almira Lydia Greene of Starksboro, Vermont.

In 1858 he started his first nursery, containing a small pear orchard, fruit yards, gardens of currants, cherries, grapes, peaches and potatoes.

[2] During the American Civil War, about five months after his marriage, Pringle was drafted into the Union Army on July 13, 1863, along with two other Vermont Quakers following the Confederate Conscription Acts 1862–1864.

[4] They shared the Quakers' disapproval of war, and when Pringle's uncle offered to pay the US$300 (equivalent to $7,424 in 2023) necessary for his release, he would not allow this to be done, regarding that solution as a selfish compromise with principle.

On October 3, 1863, at Culpeper, Virginia, Pringle was staked to the ground, with his arms outstretched and his legs rackedracked[clarification needed unclear term]; he was left in this position for hours, until "so weak he could hardly walk or perform any exertion."

[2][3] Pringle once again turned his energies to plant breeding in 1868, attempting to hybridize new varieties of various fruits, corn, tomatoes, and grains such as wheat and oats.

[2] Sometime in the 1870s, Pringle began to collect plants throughout Vermont, from deep in mossy woods, by lakesides, or high on mountain summits.

[2] During his 35 years of field work in the United States, Canada and Mexico, Pringle collected over 500,000 specimens which included some 1,200 species new to science.

[7] In the last year of his life Pringle was planning a trip to South America, but became ill.[2] He died on May 25, 1911, and is buried in Morningside Cemetery, East Charlotte, Vermont.

[9] Several genera were named in honor of Pringle, including Neopringlea (Salicaceae),[10] Pringleella (Ditrichaceae),[11] Pringleochloa (a synonym of Bouteloua Lag.