Both Asteraceae

Artemisia ludoviciana vs Pseudognaphalium microcephalum

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 Method published

Side by sidefigs. a and b

Artemisia ludoviciana, photographed by Mary Krieger
fig. a Mary Krieger, CC BY 4.0

Artemisia ludoviciana

Silver Wormwood
Pseudognaphalium microcephalum, photographed by Daniel S.
fig. b Daniel S., CC BY 4.0

Pseudognaphalium microcephalum

Feltleaf Everlasting

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Pseudognaphalium microcephalum Artemisia ludoviciana 3 of 17 (18%)

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

What actually separates themon the record

Family Both Asteraceae. The family does not separate them.
Genus Artemisia versus Pseudognaphalium.
Flowering Peaks in November versus September. If the plant is in flower, timing helps. (n = 99 and 39.)

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