Both Asplenium

Asplenium flabellifolium vs Asplenium trichomanes

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 Asplenium Method published

Side by sidefigs. a and b

Asplenium flabellifolium, photographed by John Barkla
fig. a John Barkla, CC BY 4.0

Asplenium flabellifolium

Necklace Fern
Asplenium trichomanes, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. b Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0

Asplenium trichomanes

maidenhair spleenwort

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Asplenium flabellifolium Asplenium trichomanes 3 of 20 (15%)

The confusion runs one way only. The model mistakes Asplenium flabellifolium for Asplenium trichomanes, but not the reverse.

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

What actually separates themon the record

Family Both Aspleniaceae. The family does not separate them.
Genus Both Asplenium. Congeners, which is why this is hard.

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