Both Carya

Carya cordiformis vs Carya glabra

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 Carya Method published

Side by sidefigs. a and b

Carya cordiformis, photographed by rboles
fig. a rboles, CC BY 4.0

Carya cordiformis

bitternut hickory
Carya glabra, photographed by Claire Herzog
fig. b Claire Herzog, CC BY 4.0

Carya glabra

pignut hickory

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Carya glabra Carya cordiformis 3 of 20 (15%)

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

What actually separates themon the record

Family Both Juglandaceae. The family does not separate them.
Genus Both Carya. 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