Career
From 1846 he worked as a gardener at several sites in Europe, then spent several years engaged in travels. After returning from South America in 1856, he worked for two years at the Van Houtte nursery in Ghent. Afterwards, he relocated to Baden-Baden, where he founded a botanical garden.
He specialized in the cultivation and propagation of bulbous plants (lilies, tulips, irises and alliums).
Botanical taxa with the specific epithet of leichtlinii commemorate his name, two examples being, Camassia leichtlinii (great camas) and Calochortus leichtlinii (Leichtlin"s mariposa). Pflanzen-Sammlung des Leichtlin"schen Gartens in Baden-Baden (1873 –).
"The plantsman of Baden: Maximilian Leichtlin 1831-1910", by Audrey Le Lievre.