Biography

Danish botanist who made significant plant collections in Mexico. Liebmann was born in Helsingör and studied at the University of Copenhagen. His early interest was in algae, which he studied in Denmark and neighbouring countries in the 1830s. In 1837 he was employed as an instructor in botany at the Veterinary School in Copenhagen and in 1841 travelled to Mexico to collect plants for the Copenhagen Botanical Garden. Under the patronage of King Christian VIII Liebmann spent two years exploring the country, also spending time on St. Croix and Puerto Rico on his way there and in Cuba before his return to Denmark in 1843. Starting his mainland journey in Veracruz, he spent about eight months in Oaxaca and the rest of the time in Veracruz and adjacent Puebla. He completed an enumeration of the ferns of Mexico (Mexicos Bregner) in 1849, including 308 species, 95 of which he described as new. Before he managed to work up the rest of his extensive collections, however, Liebmann died, aged only 43. He was at the time serving as director of the Botanical Gardens of Copenhagen and as professor-in-ordinary at the University of Copenhagen. Others studied the collections he left, resulting in A. Oersted's edition of Liebmann's work on oaks, Chênes de l'Amérique Tropicale (1869) and Gottsche's 1863 work on his liverworts.

Sources:
A. Lasègue, 1845, Musée Botanique: 468-469
J.T. Mickel, 1987, "Liebmann's Mexican ferns", Contributions from the New York Botanical Garden, 19: 1-3
R. McVaugh, in ibid: 5-6
C.F. Millspaugh, 1902, "Flora of the Island of St. Croix", Field Museum Botanical Series, 1(7): 453
G. Sayre, 1975, "Cryptogamae Exsiccatae: an annotated bibliography of exsiccatae of algae, lichens, hepaticae, and musci. V. Unpublished Exsiccatae: I. Collectors", Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden, 19(3): 360.