Authors:
A large-flowered oncos species with robust stems to 60cm tall. Flowers 13-20cm across, variable in colour but generally greyish, brown or purplish, stippled and veined; beard on falls yellow to purplish-brown. Rocky limestone hills; south-eastern Turkey & north-eastern Iraq. [Pl.224]
1. gracilipes A. Gray. 2A. Usually 10-15cm tall, forming almost grass-like tufts. Leaves 5-10mm wide, bright green. Flowers 3-4cm in diameter, lilac-blue, the falls with a white, purple-veined patch and a yellow-tipped crest, the standards spreading to the same plane as the falls, creating a flattish flower, early summer, with odd blooms until autumn. China and Japan, in mountain woods. A most attractive, hardy species, ideal for the peat bed or a partially shaded site on the rock garden.
