Paul Clifford Hutchison's (1924–1997) interest in succulents began at the age of 12 when he first saw Faucaria tigrina while he was working for the summer at a plant nursery. His childhood fascination would develop into professional pursuit with his graduation from University of California, after which he joined the university's botanical garden in 1949. While there, he participated in multiple expeditions to South America headed by Thomas Harper Goodspeed (1887–1966), and would eventually lead his own. He also worked with Goodspeed on publications, becoming the co-author on Goodspeed's The Genus Nicotiana. He left the gardens in 1966 to pursue his personal project of developing a nursery called Tropic World, which he intended to open to the public as a botanical garden featuring rare plants. While that aspect of the project never came to fruition, Hutchison constructed multiple greenhouses in which he continued studying and working with plants until 1990, when he sold the business.