Both Carpobrotus

Carpobrotus chilensis vs Carpobrotus edulis

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

Confused 10x by our model Same genus Carpobrotus Method published

Side by sidefigs. a and b

Carpobrotus chilensis, photographed by Arnim Littek
fig. a Arnim Littek, CC BY 4.0

Carpobrotus chilensis

Chilean sea fig
Carpobrotus edulis, photographed by Wendy St. John
fig. b Wendy St. John, CC BY-SA 4.0

Carpobrotus edulis

sea fig

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Carpobrotus chilensis Carpobrotus edulis 10 of 19 (53%)

The confusion runs one way only. The model mistakes Carpobrotus chilensis for Carpobrotus edulis, 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 Aizoaceae. The family does not separate them.
Genus Both Carpobrotus. Congeners, which is why this is hard.
Flowering Peaks in April versus April. Timing does not separate them. (n = 921 and 2,777.)

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