Both Orchidaceae

Anacamptis morio vs Orchis mascula

These two are not on this page because a keyword tool suggested them. They are here because our own identification model genuinely mistook one for the other, on real photographs, 8 times. We publish the rate, and then we tell you what actually separates them.

Confused 8x by our model Method published

Side by sidefigs. a and b

Anacamptis morio, photographed by Jens-Christian Svenning
fig. a Jens-Christian Svenning, CC BY 4.0

Anacamptis morio

green-winged orchid
Orchis mascula, photographed by CorentinD
fig. b CorentinD, CC BY 4.0

Orchis mascula

Early Purple Orchid

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Orchis mascula Anacamptis morio 8 of 20 (40%)

Measured on 38,299 openly licensed, research-grade photographs. Full method and dataset.

What actually separates themon the record

Family Both Orchidaceae. The family does not separate them.
Genus Anacamptis versus Orchis.
Flowering Peaks in April versus May. If the plant is in flower, timing helps. (n = 5,564 and 3,334.)

What we do not have yet: the diagnostic morphological character that a botanist would key on, from a source we can cite. We are not going to invent one. Until we have it, this page tells you the two are genuinely confusable, how often, and what the taxonomy and the flowering data do and do not settle.

Both recordsfull pages