Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America

by Lucy Braun, Ph.D.

Emma Lucy Braun (1889-1971) was an American botanist and ecologist whose commitment to conservation led to the eventual preservation of over 10,000 acres in Ohio. Much of this land was carefully studied by Braun and her students and the plant life cataloged for posterity. Braun's devotion to land preservation was one of the pivotal influences in the developing field of ecology. Her extensive research on plants was a major impetus in establishing plant ecology as an academic discipline and The Ecology Society of America elected Braun its first woman president in 1950. Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America was published in 1950 and describes in detail the trees and shrubs in the deciduous forests of Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. It is still widely used as a reference work today. Lucy Braun was perhaps the foremost botanist in the deciduous forest region. Her descriptions of the deciduous forest associations, from mixed mesophytic to beech-maple, are wonderful, a classic title in plant ecology.