Aizoaceae and Polygonaceae

Carpobrotus edulis vs Eriogonum fasciculatum

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

Carpobrotus edulis, photographed by Wendy St. John
fig. a Wendy St. John, CC BY-SA 4.0

Carpobrotus edulis

sea fig
Eriogonum fasciculatum, photographed by Jess Mullins
fig. b Jess Mullins, CC BY 4.0

Eriogonum fasciculatum

California Buckwheat

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Carpobrotus edulis Eriogonum fasciculatum 3 of 17 (18%)

The confusion runs one way only. The model mistakes Carpobrotus edulis for Eriogonum fasciculatum, but not the reverse.

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

What actually separates themon the record

Family Aizoaceae versus Polygonaceae. Different families, which is a real separation.
Genus Carpobrotus versus Eriogonum.
Flowering Peaks in April versus May. If the plant is in flower, timing helps. (n = 2,777 and 5,441.)

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