Henry William Ravenel (born Berkeley County, South Carolina, 19 May 1814; died Aiken, South Carolina, 17 July 1887) was a botanist of the United States. He studied fungi and cryptogams in South Carolina, discovering a large number of new species. The genus Ravenelia is named after him, along with many of the species he discovered.
Henry William Ravenel was born on Pooshee Plantation, which had been in his family since before 1716. He attended nearby Pineville Academy and graduated in 1832 from South Carolina College, now the University of South Carolina, where he was a member of the Clariosophic Society. Pooshe plantation now lies beneath the waters of Lake Moultrie, which was created in 1939. The nearest existing place is Bonneau.[1] He made a critical study of the phaenogams (phanerogams?) of South Carolina, was botanist of the government commission to Texas in 1869 and was agricultural editor of the Weekly News and Courier. The genus Ravenelia of the Uredineae is named in his honor. He was credited with being the only American after the Rev. Moses A. Curtis, who knew specifically the fungi of the United States. The University of North Carolina gave him the degree of LL.D. in 1886.[2]