Both Angelica

Angelica capitellata vs Angelica hendersonii

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, 3 times. We publish the rate, and then we tell you what actually separates them.

Confused 3x by our model Same genus Angelica Method published

Side by sidefigs. a and b

Angelica capitellata, photographed by Diego Blanco
fig. a Diego Blanco, CC0 1.0

Angelica capitellata

ranger buttons
Angelica hendersonii, photographed by Caleb Catto
fig. b Caleb Catto, CC BY 4.0

Angelica hendersonii

Henderson's angelica

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Angelica hendersonii Angelica capitellata 3 of 20 (15%)

Measured on 38,949 openly licensed, research-grade photographs. Full method and dataset.

What actually separates themon the record

Family Both Apiaceae. The family does not separate them.
Genus Both Angelica. Congeners, which is why this is hard.
Flowering Peaks in August versus July. If the plant is in flower, timing helps. (n = 266 and 269.)

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