Charles Edwin Bessey (21 May 1845 – 25 February 1915) was an American botanist.

In 1884, he was appointed professor of botany at the University of Nebraska and became head dean there in 1909.

His arrangement of flowering plants taxa, with focus on the evolutionary divergence of primitive forms, is considered by many as the system most likely to form the basis of a modern, comprehensive taxonomy of the plant kingdom.

In 1967, Iowa State University built a Plant Industry Building, which was named after Bessey.

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