Branwhite, Philip John   (1951 - 2015)

Born on 25 July 1951 in Albury, NSW; died on 17 December 2015 at Cravensville, VIC.

Branwhite, Alan Eddie (Boris) (1946- )
Branwhite, Philip John (1951-2015)
Branwhite, Peter Gordon (1956-2017)

They grew up in Wodonga town, NSW, where their father was a radio engineer and newspaper editor, then farmer, and their mother (a florist in her youth) was involved in the Girl Guides and encouraged the boys to join the Gould League.

David Jones described Philip as the 'quieter of the three brothers'.

Philip evidently left his botanical material to the Australian National Herbarium (CANB) in his will, so his herbarium specimens and other material was delivered to CANB after his death. Some of these speciments were still being processed in 2024.
His 35mm slide collection was transferred to the Photo Collection area of the Australian National Botanic Gardens and were still awaiting selective incorporation into the Australian Plant Image Index (APII) in 2024.

Philip was the artist of the family and ten wire-ring-bound folios of his drawings in black plastic covers, mostly orchids, were transfered from CANB to the Australian National Botanic Gardens Library's botanical art collection.
These are outlined pencil drawings with coloured-pencil fill to show colour.

In 2024, 'Boris' Branwhite wrote about the three brothers:

"The Branwhite families interest in nature was driven by our mother Val [Valerie Jean] during our childhood and when I introduced the family into the world of orchids in the early 70s, both Philip and Peter got the bug. They travelled extensively in QLD, NSW, VIC, SA, and WA collecting specimens for Canberra, tubers for Peters tuber bank, Peter took the pics, Phillip did the pressings and line drawings.
The extensive tuber bank was destroyed by fumes from the 'clean-up' of a nearby old fuel and asphalt depot.
I did most of my orchid research in the NSW Central Coast area, finding a number of new species, and causing Wyong Council to take orchid matters seriously. Shire records in 1996 showed 12 orchid species in the shire – now they have recorded over 160 species, many of which have stopped clearing for development."

Branwhite, P.     1,281 collections
Branwhite, P.J.     1,834 collections
Branwhite, P.G.     834 collections

Source: Extracted from:
Pers. com. 'Boris Branwhite (2024)
Pers. com. David Jones (2024)
Portrait Photo: 2008, supplied by 'Boris' Branwhite,

Collecting localities for 'Branwhite, P.J.' from AVH (2024)

Data from 1,834 specimens

Collecting localities for 'Branwhite, P.' from AVH (2024)

Data from 1,281 specimens