A. gracillima has small flowers that are white with rose tinging; its specific name literally translates as "very slender" or "insignificant".

[1]: 103 Aquilegia gracillima was first described by Austrian botanist Karl Heinz Rechinger in 1992 within the Flora Iranica.

[1]: 104  The holotype was collected by Rechinger on July 2, 1962, in Afghanistan and is held in the herbarium of the Natural History Museum, Vienna.

[1]: 103–104 According to Nold, the species Aquilegia helmandica (described in 1974 by Christopher Grey-Wilson) has been considered a synonym of A. gracillima.

[1]: 104  The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew's Plants of the World Online instead considers A. helmandica a synonym for A moorcroftiana var. afghanica.