What is "branch-decomposition"

Branchwidth is closely related to tree-width: for all graphs, both of these numbers are within a constant factor of each other, and both quantities may be characterized by forbidden minors. And as with treewidth, many graph optimization problems may be solved efficiently for graphs of small branchwidth. However, unlike treewidth, the branchwidth of planar graphs may be computed exactly, in polynomial time. Branch-decompositions and branchwidth may also be generalized from graphs to matroids.