Kolakovsky Alfred

Alfred Kolakovsky (b. February 24, 1906, Kiev – d. 1997, Sokhumi), botanist (systematist, botanist-geographer and paleobotanist), corresponding member of the Georgian Academy of Sciences (1955), professor (1952), Honored Scientist of Georgia (1961) and the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia (1976). Kolakovsky's main works touch on the vegetative cover of the Caucasus, especially Colchis, issues of its botanical-geographical divisions, and the Pliocene flora of Abkhazia. He identified and described about 120 new species and 2 new genera of the Tertiary flora of Colchis; revealed a previously unknown epidermal type structure for gymnosperms; established the continuity of the Tertiary flora refugium (shelter) in Colchis; on the basis of paleobotanical analysis and the study of the relict flora of the Holarctic realm, he distinguished a completely new botanical-geographical Mediterranean region within the Northern Hemisphere; created a catalog of fossil plants of the Caucasus (vol. 1–2, 1973). He is the author of the Flora of Abkhazia (vol. 1–4, 1938–49).