Cyclopogon gracilis Schltr. 1921Drawing by © Dodson and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Graceful Cyclopogon

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in Ecuador at elevations of 1000 to 2300 meters as a small sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial with basal, clustered, obliquely ovate, acute, slender petiolate base leaves that blooms in the late winter and early spring on a terminal, erect, enveloped almost completely by lanceolate, bract-like sheaths, rachis to 4.4" [11 cm] long, secund, loosely many flowred inflorescence with linear-acuminate, decreasing in size upwards floral bracts

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.

This species is very close to C condoranus 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.

Synonyms Beadlea gracilis (Schltr.) Garay 1978

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 47: 77 1929 drawing fide; Flora Brasilica Vol XII II 13-43 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

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------