Cyclopogon gracilis Schltr. 1921
SUBGENUS Beadlea [Small] Szlach 1993
Drawing by © Calaway Dodson
TYPE Drawing by © Schlechter
LATE
EARLY 
Common Name The Graceful Cyclopogon
Flower Size .12" [3 mm]
Found in Canar province of Ecuador on stones with a thin layer of humus, at elevations of 1000 to 2300 meters as a small sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial with 2 to 3, basal, clustered in a rosette, obliquely ovate-lanceolate, acute, slender petiolate base leaves that blooms in the late winter and early spring on a terminal, erect, peduncle 1.6 to 3.2" [4 to 8 cm] long, enveloped almost completely by lanceolate sheathing bracts, rachis to 3.6 to 4.4" [9 to 11 cm] long, secund, loosely many flowered inflorescence with linear-acuminate, decreasing in size upwards, shorter than the flower floral bracts carrying white-pink flowers.
Distinguished by the lip apex flared with a transversely reniform apical lobe, the base of the lip clawed, the lateral lobes are sagittate, it has large horn-like calli extending from the margin of the lateral lobes of the lip, the column is glabrous and the leaves are plain green.
Schlechter considered this species to be closest to C olivaceus
This species is very close to C condoranus according to Dodson but it has an elliptical and acute dorsal sepal, the base of the lip has a claw that is longer than wide and the distance across the basal lobes of the lip is narrower than the apical lobe.
"Can easily be confused with Cyclopogon epiphyticus but C gracilis has a sagitate base to the lip versus a broadly cuneate lip base, which is ornamented with a prominent falcate callus onn each side on the margins of the auricles versus small, falcate callus on eachside on the margins of the aurcles." Szlachetko & Kolanowska 20219
Synonyms Beadlea gracilis (Schltr.) Garay 1978
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 8: 45 Schlechter 1921
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 47: 77 nbr. 300 Mansfield 1929 drawing fide;
Flora Brasilica Vol XII II 13-43: 181 Hoehne 1945;
Flora of Ecuador #9 225 [1] Orchidaceae Garay 1978 as Beadlea gracilis;
Icones Plantarum Tropicarum Plate 5 Dodson 1980 as Beadlea gracilis drawing fide;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 1 Escobar & Dodson 1993 drawing fide;
Flora of Ecuador # 76 225 [2] Orchidaceae Dodson/Luer 2005;
Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia: 271 Szlachetko & Kolanowska 2019 drawing fide
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