Helen Margaret Gilkey

Helen Margaret Gilkey (1886–1972) was an American mycologist and botanist, as well as a botanical illustrator and watercolor artist. to receive a Ph.D. in botany there. Gilkey's doctoral dissertation focused on the taxonomy of North American truffles (order Tuberales), and her published dissertation remains an important contribution to the study of truffle taxonomy in North America.

Career After completing her doctoral studies, Gilkey worked as a scientific illustrator. She contributed original illustrations to Willis Linn Jepson's Manual of Flowering Plants of California. In 1918, Gilkey secured a position as the herbarium curator at the Oregon Agricultural College. Her 1939 monograph is on the Tuberales of North America. . Over the course of her academic career, Gilkey published many books and over 40 scientific articles, with the last book being her Handbook of Northwestern Plants, published in 1967. In 2006 the truffle genus Gilkeya was named in her honor.