[1] Carl Linnaeus the Younger was enrolled at the University of Uppsala at the age of 9 and was taught science by his father's students, including Pehr Löfling, Daniel Solander, and Johan Peter Falk.

His best-known work is the Supplementum Plantarum systematis vegetabilium of 1781, which contains botanical descriptions by the elder Linnaeus and his colleagues, edited and with additions by the son.

In London he became ill with jaundice and, shortly after his return, he suffered from fever and a stroke from which he died aged 42.

[3] While still alive, Carl Linnaeus the Younger had inherited his father's extensive scientific collections of books, specimens, and correspondence, and he had worked to preserve them.

In October 1784 his mother, Sara Elisabeth (1716–1806), sold the library and herbarium to the English botanist Sir James Edward Smith (1759–1828).