Grisebach studied at the Lyceum in Hanover, the cloister-school at Ilfeld, and the University of Göttingen. He graduated in medicine from the University of Berlin in 1836.
He undertook expeditions to Provence, Turkey, the Balkans, and Norway.
In 1837 he became associate professor and in 1847 full professor at the medical faculty in Göttingen and was named director of the botanical garden there in 1875.
While his main fields of interest were phytogeography and systematics, especially the Gentianaceae and Malpighiaceae, he considered his Flora of the British West Indian Islands his most important work.
Much of his collection, especially the types of species described by him, are housed at the Göttingen University Herbarium.[1] His taxonomic classification is set out in his Grundriss der systematischen Botanik (1854). His son Eduard was an author, lawyer and diplomat.
Die Vegetation der Erde nach Ihrer Klimatischen Anordnung (The Earth's vegetation after its climatic arrangement), 1872 (1st Edition), 1884 (2nd Edition).
Flora of the British West Indian Islands, Lovell Reeve & Co., London, 1864
This is a selected list of the more influential systems. There are many other systems, for instance a review of earlier systems, published by Lindley in his 1853 edition, and Dahlgren (1982). Examples include the works of Scopoli, Ventenat, Batsch and Grisebach.
Prodromus systemati naturalis regni vegetabilis sive enumeratio contracta ordinum, generum specierumque plantarum huc usque cognitarum, juxta methodi naturalis normas digesta
