He was a younger brother to naturalist Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus (1776–1837).

In 1801 he earned his doctorate at the University of Jena, where he had as instructors; botanist August Batsch (1761–1802) and philosophers Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854) and Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814).

In 1816 he replaced Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link (1767–1851) as professor of botany at the University of Breslau, and in 1820 transferred to the University of Bonn, where he was successor to Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck (1776–1858).

In his earlier studies, he worked mostly in the fields of plant anatomy and physiology, afterwards focusing on taxonomic issues.

[1] The botanical genus Trevirana (Gesneriaceae) was named in his honor by Carl Ludwig Willdenow (1765–1812).