John Jacob Lavranos

John Jacob Lavranos (29 March 1926, in Corfu – 1 February 2018, in Portugal) was a Greek/South African insurance broker and botanist, with a special interest in succulents.

She and her husband Philip cared for John and his younger brother, Max, saw the occupation of Corfu during WWII, and lived through the bombings by Italians, Germans, British and Americans, only to be plunged immediately into the Greek Civil War of 1946 to 1949.

[3] He settled in Loulé, a city near Faro in the Algarve region of southern Portugal in 1995 and donated most of his plants to the Gibraltar Botanic Gardens.

If the last century of contributions to our knowledge of succulents plants could be compared to a large greenhouse, then John Lavranos would be one of the supporting poles near the center.

Not only has he found so many of Mother Nature's well hidden and most beautiful succulent treasures, but he has shared the resulting knowledge and material with utmost generosity.

The combination of skills needed to do what he has done so far is only rarely found in a single human, and more than once have I heard the word genius used where John was discussed.

His knowledge of botany and geology was formidable, and this extended to climatology, geography, astronomy, history and music–he was an accomplished pianist earlier in his life.