Martin Vahl (botanist)

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Martin Vahl

Martin Vahl (born October 10, 1749 in Bergen - died December 24, 1804 in Copenhagen) was a Danish-Norwegian botanist and zoologist.

He studied botany in Copenhagen and in Uppsala under Carolus Linnaeus. He edited Flora Danica fasc. XVI-XXI (1787-1799), Symbolæ Botanicæ I-III (1790-1794), Eclogæ Americanæ I-IV (1796-1807) and Enumeratio Plantarum I-II (1804-1805). He lectured at the University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden from 1779 to 1782.

Vahl made several research trips in Europe and North Africa between 1783 and 1788. He became professor at the Society for Natural History ("Naturhistorie Selskabet") in Copenhagen in 1786 and was a full professor of botany at the University of Copenhagen from 1801 to his death.

His son Jens Vahl also became a botanist.

The standard author abbreviation Vahl is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.^[1]

[edit] References

Christensen, Carl (1932) Martin Vahl, pp. 85-88 in: Meisen, V. Prominent Danish Scientists through the Ages. University Library of Copenhagen 450th Anniversary. Levin & Munksgaard, Copenhagen.