Brassicaceae and Apiaceae

Cardamine impatiens vs Daucus carota

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

Cardamine impatiens, photographed by Pavel Komkov
fig. a Pavel Komkov, CC BY 4.0

Cardamine impatiens

narrow-leaved bittercress
Daucus carota, photographed by Violet T.
fig. b Violet T., CC BY 4.0

Daucus carota

wild carrot

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Cardamine impatiens Daucus carota 3 of 20 (15%)

The confusion runs one way only. The model mistakes Cardamine impatiens for Daucus carota, but not the reverse.

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

What actually separates themon the record

Family Brassicaceae versus Apiaceae. Different families, which is a real separation.
Genus Cardamine versus Daucus.
Flowering Peaks in May versus July. If the plant is in flower, timing helps. (n = 2,064 and 15,123.)

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