A distributary channel which leaves the main channel, sometimes running parallel to it for several kilometres, and then rejoins it; a channel ‘separated by vegetated semi-permanent alluvial islands, excised from an existing floodplain, or formed by within-channel or deltaic accretion’ (Nanson and Knighton (1998) ESPL 21, 3). Jansen and Nanson (2004) Water Resources Res. 40, W04503 show that anabranching can sustain a stable river pattern where a single channel could not transport sediment. Anabranching channels differ from anastomosing channels in that they are undivided.