Helen Margaret Gilkey (1886–1972) was an American mycologist and botanist, as well as a botanical illustrator and watercolor artist[1][2] She was born on March 6, 1886, in Montesano, Washington, and moved to Corvallis, Oregon, with her family in 1903.

She continued her studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1915 she became the first woman[2][4] to receive a Ph.D. in botany there.

Gilkey's doctoral dissertation focused on the taxonomy of North American truffles (order Tuberales),[5] and her published dissertation remains an important contribution to the study of truffle taxonomy in North America.

[3] She contributed original illustrations to Willis Linn Jepson's Manual of Flowering Plants of California.

[1] Gilkey was best known for her extensive studies on truffles, but she also conducted research on vascular plants.