Conocephalaceae and Araceae

Conocephalum conicum vs Lemna minor

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.

Confused 4x by our model Method published

Side by sidefigs. a and b

Conocephalum conicum, photographed by Jerry Lanfear
fig. a Jerry Lanfear, CC BY 4.0

Conocephalum conicum

Great Scented Liverwort
Lemna minor, photographed by Марина Садыкова
fig. b Марина Садыкова, CC BY 4.0

Lemna minor

Common Duckweed

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Conocephalum conicum Lemna minor 4 of 20 (20%)

The confusion runs one way only. The model mistakes Conocephalum conicum for Lemna minor, but not the reverse.

Measured on 38,949 openly licensed, research-grade photographs. Full method and dataset.

What actually separates themon the record

Family Conocephalaceae versus Araceae. Different families, which is a real separation.
Genus Conocephalum versus Lemna.

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