Before Carl Linnaeus became professor of botany at Uppsala, he traveled extensively.
Linnaeus traveled to Holland, England, France, and all over Sweden.
On each trip, he carefully studied the new plants he came across and filled his notebooks with his observations.
After he became a professor, he often arranged to have his students sent out on exploratory voyages around the world.
The students would bring back huge plant collections for their teacher to study. One of his students was the naturalist for the first around the world voyage with Captain James Cook.
Another student traveled to the American colonies and brought back North American plants. Another of Linnaeus’s students became the first naturalist to visit Japan in over a century.
Other students traveled to Asia, Africa, South America, and Arabia.
They not only brought back thousands of specimens, but also spread the word on Linnaeus’s classification system, helping it gain worldwide acceptance very quickly.
In 1762, Linnaeus was elevated to Swedish nobility and changed his name back to Carl von Untie.
He was given his own coat of arms bearing his favorite flower, the Linnea borealis, which was named after him.
Linnaeus once tried to build a floral clock based on the way certain flowers opened and closed their petals at particular times of the day.
