From 1840 he studied botany at the universities of Dorpat, Berlin and Heidelberg, receiving his PhD in 1843.[1] In 1847-49, with Pierre Edmond Boissier, he collected plants in Transcaucasia and Persia.[2] In 1852 he became a correspondent member of the Société linnéenne de Lyon.[3]
With Boissier he circumscribed many species of plants.[4] The botanical genus Buhsia (family Capparaceae) was named in his honor by Alexander Bunge.[2]