Anthony R. Brach
Editor, Flora of China Project, Missouri Botanical Garden
Research Associate, Harvard University Herbaria
Harvard University Herbaria
22 Divinity Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138-2094
Email
I edit treatments according to the Flora of China Project’s guidelines for contributors, manage the project web pages, update the databased treatments in eFloras and the project’s corrigenda, develop interactive identification keys, correspond with authors and reviewers, and assist visitors.
Current Research Interests
As an editorial committee member for the Flora of China Project (FOC), I have an overall interest in the plants of China, and their similarities with plants of North America, their taxonomy, identification, and ecology. I am currently assisting in the editing of treatments of the pteridophytes (volumes 2 and 3), updating the corrigenda (for volume 1), and updating the databased treatments in eFloras.
As we approach the completion of the printed English edition of the Flora of China, I am interested in the possibilities of digital, next-edition, next-generation floras. The databased floristic treatments in eFloras provide a place for regularly updating and correcting the flora with annotations (from specialists, other botanists, and editors) and linking to images of plants from the field, living (gardens, arboreta) and preserved (herbaria) collections, and other databases (nomenclature, protologues, types, illustrations, photos, chromosomes, genomics, medicinal, etc.). The eFloras database and web interface provide a foundation for future revisions of taxonomic treatments.
For about eight years, I have been building interactive identification keys to large genera for the Flora of China Project, using the DELTA editor for inputting data from species descriptions and outputting DELTA interactive keys. Currently, we have interactive keys to about half of China’s species. Further images of plants and their diagnostic character states can be added, and new applications developed using new technologies. Natural language descriptions can also be produced from DELTA data.
Recent Publications
- Brach, A. R. and D. E. Boufford. 2011. Why Are We Still Producing Paper Floras? Annals of Missouri Botanical Garden 98: 297–300.
- Brach, A. R. 2011. Cotoneaster. (pp. 298–307), in Watson M. et al. (eds.): Flora of Nepal. Vol. 3. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
- Chen, T. and A. R. Brach. 2011. Carlemanniaceae. (pp. 478–479) in Wu Z. Y., P. H. Raven, and D. Y. Hong (eds.) Flora of China. Volume 19. Science Press & Missouri Botanical Garden.
- Ying, T. S., D. E. Boufford, and A. R. Brach. 2011. Berberidaceae. (pp. 714–800) in Wu Z. Y., P. H. Raven, and D. Y. Hong (eds.) Flora of China. Volume 19. Science Press & Missouri Botanical Garden.
- Bao, B. J. and A. R. Brach. 2010. Gueldenstaedtia and Tibetia. (pp. 506–509) in Wu, Z. Y., P. H. Raven, and D. Y. Hong (eds.) Flora of China. Volume 10. Science Press & Missouri Botanical Garden.
- Brach, A. R. 2008. Exploring botanical history using Ancestry.com. Harvard Papers in Botany 13: 245–251.
- Min, T. L. and A. R. Brach. 2008. Coriariaceae. (pp. 333–334) in Wu Z. Y., P. H. Raven, and D. Y. Hong (eds.) Flora of China. Volume 11. Science Press & Missouri Botanical Garden.
- Guo, L. X. and A. R. Brach. 2007. Sabiaceae. (pp. 25–42) in Wu Z. Y., P. H. Raven, and D. Y. Hong (eds.) Flora of China. Volume 12. Science Press & Missouri Botanical Garden.
- Qin, H. N. and A. R. Brach. 2007. Crypteroniaceae. (p. 292) in Wu Z. Y., P. H. Raven, and D. Y. Hong (eds.) Flora of China. Volume 13. Science Press & Missouri Botanical Garden.
- Ma, J. S. and A. R. Brach. 2007. The identity of cultivated Phellodendron (Rutaceae) in North America. J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 1(1): 357–365.
- Brach, A. R. and H. Song. 2006. eFloras: New directions for online floras exemplified by the Flora of China Project. Taxon 55(1): 188–192.
- Brach, A. R. and H. Song. 2005. ActKey: a web-based interactive identification key program. Taxon 54(4): 1041–1046.
- Brach, A. R. and N. H. Xia. 2005. Saururaceae, Species Plantarum: Flora of the World Part 11: 1–12.