News & Events

November 2026: BRAHMS updated to v2026.4.1

This revision of BRAHMS brings several important changes, the most significant being the move from .NET 4.8.1 to .NET 10. This is accompanied by the upgrade of Entity Framework 6 to EF Core. EF plays a key part with BRAHMS data access. The combination of these 2 infrastructural updates brings BRAHMS into line with the latest fully supported .NET and EF technologies, providing speed, efficiency and security improvements across the system. The complete list of new features and bug fixes is provided on:
BRAHMS revision notes.

October 2026: Singapore Botanic Gardens, Herbarium, Seed and DNA banks

Following on from a 10 day training course event held at the Singapore Botanic Garden (NParks) in September 2026, a BRAHMS database that integrates data from their Living Collections, Herbarium, Seed and DNA banks, has now gone live. The database itself is stored on a well-resourced Singapore cloud server. The BRAHMS system is installed on user workstations. As part of this project, an entirely new DNA/Molecular lab module was added to BRAHMS. The database will be used for curating the collections as well as providing support for research projects as appropriate. Among many other activities, NParks leads efforts in biodiversity documentation and conservation in Singapore. Their collections include materials mostly from the Malesian biogeographic region and adjacent areas with the most extensive collections from Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia, dating back to the 1880s.

Singapore Botanic Garden, Herbarium, Seed and DNA bank.

September 2026: The Brunei National Herbarium (BRUN)

A 4 day BRAHMS training course was held at the Brunei National Herbarium (BRUN) - they have now upgraded to the latest BRAHMS system after operating with BRAHMS v7 since 2010. The BRUN herbarium is the key centre for plant taxonomy in Brunei as well as being the main repository of all plant specimens collected in the country and from neighbouring regions including Sabah, Sarawak, West Malaysia, Kalimantan, Indonesia and Singapore. BRUN distributes duplicate specimens to major international herbaria. A high % of their specimens have been imaged.

Brunei has an unusually high % of intact mixed dipterocarp forest cover with high diversity. The BRUN herbarium and forest department staff undertake regular field trips for plant collection and forest assessment.

April 2026: BRAHMS DNA Module

BRAHMS 8.7.5 is shortly to be published. One of the key additions is a new module for managing DNA samples.

The DNA and laboratories module provides storage options for DNA material sources linked to preserved specimens, seed accessions, garden plants and wild collected material. Acquisitions of non-institutional sample materials are also covered. Automated laboratory sample numbering for materials can be selected with a range of numbering templates. Source material samples can then be added to the DNA Sample Materials table where you can define the actual sample category (leaf discs, flowers, etc.) together with storage location details. Counts and count units of available sample material may optionally be stored. Storage locations can be defined and configured (Freezer, Shelf, Box, etc.) with storage locations including temperature and other pertinent details. The DNA extracts themselves are linked to your stored sample materials and are added to a separate table which itself has further configurable storage locations. Extraction date and method are added together with the volume stored and remaining, sample status, DNA conc, QC method, 260/280, 260/230, sequence details and DOI and/or Genbank urls. Further linked tables are provided for DNA Libraries, Library Fragmentation and Library QC Measurements. DNA Library Pools and their members can also be stored. All of the main tables include options for adding custom fields.

February 2026: BRAHMS 8.7.4 published

BRAHMS 8.7.4 includes new features and fixes to all reported bugs. One of the key additions is the ability to add and calculate hybrid taxon names and hybrid formulae based on parent taxa. New calculated fields have been added to the species table to display calculated parents and hybrid name formulae. Another addition is with image management. Images can now be quickly imported from any folder prior to linking to data records. These images can subsequently be auto-linked to specimens based on barcode or accession numbers as included in the image file names. The complete list of new features and bug fixes is provided on:
BRAHMS revision notes.

February 2026: Managing images in BRAHMS and BRAHMS online

Image management in BRAHMS desktop has been upgraded, allowing you to quickly import large numbers of image files from selected folders. Unlike before, images do not necessarily have to be linked to data records. Once registered in the image table, images can be reviewed and then auto-linked to data such as specimens, based on components of the image file names. A typical example would be where the image file includes a specimen barcode. On BRAHMS online, new features have been added to display all images (as image thumbs) associated with records in the current data grid. The images displayed respect grid filters as these are applied. Furthermore, the images are displayed in groups that correspond to any selected data grid sort. For example, if you sort the data grid by genus, the image thumbs are grouped by genus. Clicking on any image thumb will go to and highlight the relevant data grid record. And clicking on the data grid will highlight the relevant image thumb.

Image thumbs displayed on BRAHMS online, here sorted into geographic groups and showing binomials. Grouping is controlled by your data grid sort order.

January 2026: Hybrid formula names

The latest feature addition to BRAHMS is the ability to add and calculate hybrid taxon names and hybrid formulae based on parent taxa. While BRAHMS has always had the facility to add ‘hybrid names’ (nothotaxa) using the hybrid symbol embedded in a name (Genus × epithet), the latest update enables the explicit linking of 2 taxa records, optionally indicating the parent status, to create hybrid formula names. As the parents themselves may be hybrid names or formulas, these name formulae can become complex. Formula names are auto-calculated by BRAHMS and are treated like any other name for management purposes, for example, linking the formula name to collections. Some examples calculated within BRAHMS :

(Rhododendron 'Catawbiense Grandiflorum' × R. yakushimanum 'Koichiro Wada') × R. (Elizabeth Group) 'Elizabeth'
((Rhododendron 'Bambi' × R. proteoides) × R. 'Mindy's Love') × ((R. 'Bambi' × R. proteoides) × R. 'Naselle')
Phalaenopsis Cherokee gx 'Zuma Canyon Gertie' × P. White Chiffon gx 'Zuma Canyon'
Sarracenia psittacina subsp. heterophylla × S. purpurea subsp. purpurea f. heterophylla
(Brugmansia × rubella 'Mobisu') × (B. × rubella 'Wildfire')
Magnolia 'Ian's Red' × M. sprengeri var. diva 'Eric Savill'
Gladiolus carmineus × G. orchidiflorus

Hybrid taxon names and hybrid formulae can now be calculated within BRAHMS based on selected parent taxa. The species table form has a new Parentage tab.

November 2025: BRAHMS updated to v8.7.3

BRAHMS has been updated to v8.7.3. The release includes major updates to WebConnect, BRAHMS Online, and the RDE to BRAHMS importer. Further new features and efficiencies are added across the system. All reported bugs have been fixed.

Map styles can now be designed in desktop BRAHMS and uploaded to BOL. This example creates a map style to plot seed accessions with differing seed quantities in ranges - using map point colours, symbols and marker scales.

August 2025: Transferring data from RDE to BRAHMS

The main focus of the forthcoming update to BRAHMS is the transfer of data from Rapid Data Entry (RDE) to BRAHMS. RDE is the component of BRAHMS that allows you to quickly add data into flat files, analyse and verify the data, and then transfer these data to your BRAHMS database. The transfers automatically update your various data tables as necessary. For example, if a museum collection belongs to a species that is not stored in your database, the species record is added to your species table. If necessary, also the family and genus. This applies to all categories of data.

June 2025: BRAHMS in Singapore

BRAHMS is now working with Singapore Botanic Gardens, their National Herbarium, Seed and DNA banks to create a single, integrated database. Working with NParks (Singapore National Parks), we are currently migrating their data into a database hosted on a secure, cloud-based server managed by cloudmantra. The herbarium database will first be upgraded from BRAHMS v7 to the new system and then data from all of other components will be added in stages, all linked to a central species list. Singapore, which falls within the Malesian biogeographic region, has one of the world's most diverse tropical floras.

Established in 1859, Singapore Botanic Gardens holds a unique and significant place in the history of Singapore and the region. .

March 2025: BRAHMS updated to v8.7.2

BRAHMS has been updated to v8.7.2. As well as adding useful new features, this update moves BRAHMS from .Net 4.7.2 to .Net 4.8.1, this being the latest .Net Framework version as available on Windows 10 (and later) PC's. Users with out of date Windows versions can request a copy of BRAHMS compiled in 4.7.2. BRAHMS will be published using .Net Core in the near future. This new version of BRAHMS also fixes issues reported since 8.7.0 was published.

January 2025: BRAHMS updated to 8.7.0

BRAHMS has been updated to v8.7.0. This update includes a broad range of system additions and enhancements as well extensive behind-the-scenes code refactoring which will simplify future update activities. Reported bugs have been resolved. The additions will benefit projects working with preserved and/or living collections. Many existing functions, for example tools that manage importing data from xlsx and those for managing living collections have been further developed. The update also includes a host of new features, for example, the ability to review all data verification records in a central table; an option to import dynamic weblinks; and the ability to run SQL commands in RDE files.