Both Conopholis

Conopholis alpina vs Conopholis americana

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

Confused 11x by our model Same genus Conopholis Method published

Side by sidefigs. a and b

Conopholis alpina, photographed by Anders Hastings
fig. a Anders Hastings, CC BY 4.0

Conopholis alpina

alpine cancer-root
Conopholis americana, photographed by Clay Gibbons
fig. b Clay Gibbons, CC BY 4.0

Conopholis americana

American cancer-root

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Conopholis alpina Conopholis americana 11 of 17 (65%)

The confusion runs one way only. The model mistakes Conopholis alpina for Conopholis americana, 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 Orobanchaceae. The family does not separate them.
Genus Both Conopholis. Congeners, which is why this is hard.
Flowering Peaks in March versus May. If the plant is in flower, timing helps. (n = 838 and 1,517.)

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