This species was first described from Salerno, Italy in 1973 and its name refers to its quite spindly appearance. It is a fairly unremarkable but nonetheless easily recognized Ophrys that belongs to the O. fuciflora group. Its range was once thought to include areas of southeast France but research has now reduced its distribution to central peninsula Italy, including Tuscany, Abruzzo and Molise.

In 2011 a new species, O. pinguis was described by Romolini and Soca from Lazio, an Ophrys which occupies a very similar range and whose morphological appearance is difficult to separate from O. gracilis. The illustrations that accompany this page are therefore offered with the caveat that they could be misidentified.

O. gracilis often grows in the company of several other similar taxons but can be differentiated from most by virtue of the already mentioned spindly appearance of the plant and the small size of the flowers. The labellum lacks the typical skirt of most of the O. fuciflora  group species and although in the early stages of its development O. gracilis will reveal this feature, maturity sees a strong re-curvature of the lip that gives the species a characteristically rectangular frontal profile. The lip is short and the margins uniformly covered with white hair which imparts an overall velvety appearance to the flower.    

The pictures come from Abruzzo, dating from the second week of May at which time the plants were just coming into flower,