Martin Vahl

Who was Martin Vahl?

Martin Henrichsen Vahl 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, Symbolæ Botanicæ I-III, Eclogæ Americanæ I-IV and Enumeratio Plantarum I-II. 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 in Copenhagen in 1786 and was a full professor of botany at the University of Copenhagen from 1801 to his death. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Vahl when citing a botanical name.

In 1792, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

His son Jens Vahl also became a botanist.

Martin Henrichsen Vahl was born in Bergen, Norway on and died in Copenhagen, Denmark at age 55.