German poet, physician and botanist (agrostologist) working in Russia. Born in Eisleben in Saxony, Carl von Trinius studied at Jena, Halle and Leipzig before being named surgeon at Göttingen in 1802. The following year he passed his state examination in medicine and became a practising physician in present day Latvia. From 1808 Trinius travelled with Antoinette von Württemberg as her personal physician, residing in both Germany and Russia. He developed an interested in the grasses and during his life made great advances in the field of agrostology. Two of his most important works in this field include an introduction to the subject entitled Fundamenta agrostographia (1820) and Clavis Agrostographiae antiquioris (1822), in which he reviewed and identified 2,457 pre-linnaean grass names.

In 1823 he was invited to join the staff at the Kunstkammer (the Russian imperial curiosity cabinet in St. Petersburg), and here he set about organising the botanical section which was then in a terrible state. In this way Trinius became the first botanical curator at the Kunstkammer so when, in 1835, the Botanical Museum was founded he was named its first director. Trinius enriched the collection with the acquisition of several important herbaria, and with a wealth of material at his disposal was able to publish Species graminum over the following years (1823-1836). This three-volume work was brought out in thirty small folio parts and contains the description and illustration of 335 species of grasses. Trinius also amassed a large private collection of plant specimens (around 8,000 numbers) which is now housed in the herbarium of Moscow State University (MW).

Sources:
S.G. Shetler, 1967, The Komarov Botanical Institute
F.A. Stafleu, 1970, "Historae Naturalis Classica", Taxon, 19(3): 417-422
F.A. Stafleu and R.S. Cowan, 1976-1998, Taxonomic Literature, 2nd edition (TL-2).