E. Lucy Braun

Braun earned a master’s degree in geology at Cincinnati in 1912 and a doctorate in botany in 1914. Her geological training accompanied an interest in relations among landforms, history and living vegetation.

She conducted extensive fieldwork in Ohio, Kentucky and the Appalachian region, often with her sister Annette. Her 1934 flora of the Cincinnati region was one product of these regional investigations.

References: [2] [3]

Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America (1950) synthesized forest types and distributions. Braun considered glacial and postglacial history alongside descriptions of existing tree assemblages.

Her investigations of relict vegetation and refugia treated forests as communities with historical origins, rather than as distributions explained only by present conditions.

References: [1]

In 1917 Braun helped establish the Cincinnati Wild Flower Preservation Society, promoting appreciation of plants without their destruction. She also worked for conservation in the Edge of Appalachia region.

The Woody Plants of Ohio (1961) recorded nonnative plants appearing locally. Such identifications and field records supplied material for later comparisons of vegetation change as well as botanical study.

References: [2]

Braun taught at Cincinnati from 1914 and continued research after retiring in 1948. Her work connected plant classification, forest ecology and conservation.

In 1950 she became the Ecological Society of America’s first woman president. Regional surveys and synthetic writing helped bring local botanical knowledge into wider ecological discussion.

References: [3] [1]