Solander enrolled at Uppsala University in July 1750 and initially studied languages, the humanities and law.

Solander traveled to England in June 1760 to promote the new Linnean system of classification.

In February 1763, he began cataloguing the natural history collections of the British Museum, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June the following year.

In 1768, Solander gained leave of absence from the British Museum and with his assistant Herman Spöring accompanied Joseph Banks on James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific Ocean aboard the Endeavour.

In 1772 he accompanied Banks on his voyage to Iceland, the Hebrides and the Orkney Islands.

In 1773 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Solander died at Banks' home in Soho Square of a stroke, aged 49, on 13 May 1782.

In 1784, when he wrote to Johan Alströmer of Solander's death, Banks declared: 'This too early loss of a friend, whom I during my more mature years have loved and whom I will always miss, makes me wish to draw a veil over his death, as soon as I have ceased to speak of it.

Solander was associated with Banks in Illustrations of the Botany of Captain Cook's Voyage Round the World, and his The Natural History of Many Curious and Uncommon Zoophytes, Collected by the late John Ellis, (1786) was published posthumously.

The 'Daniel Solander Library' in Sydney's Royal Botanic Garden, established in 1852, is the oldest botanical research library in Australia.