Both Castilleja
Castilleja affinis vs Castilleja coccinea
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, 4 times. We publish the rate, and then we tell you what actually separates them.
Side by sidefigs. a and b
Castilleja affinis
Coast Paintbrush
Castilleja coccinea
Painted-cup paintbrush
How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated
| When the plant was | The model said | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Castilleja coccinea | Castilleja affinis | 4 of 20 (20%) |
Measured on 38,949 openly licensed, research-grade photographs. Full method and dataset.
What actually separates themon the record
| Family | Both Orobanchaceae. The family does not separate them. |
|---|---|
| Genus | Both Castilleja. Congeners, which is why this is hard. |
| Flowering | Peaks in February versus August. If the plant is in flower, timing helps. (n = 769 and 531.) |
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.