Rubiaceae and Nothofagaceae

Coprosma rhamnoides vs Nothofagus solandri

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

Coprosma rhamnoides, photographed by Jaco Grundling
fig. a Jaco Grundling, CC0 1.0

Coprosma rhamnoides

Twiggy coprosma
Nothofagus solandri, photographed by Leon Perrie
fig. b Leon Perrie, CC BY 4.0

Nothofagus solandri

New Zealand Black Beech

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Nothofagus solandri Coprosma rhamnoides 3 of 20 (15%)

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

What actually separates themon the record

Family Rubiaceae versus Nothofagaceae. Different families, which is a real separation.
Genus Coprosma versus Nothofagus.
Flowering Peaks in September versus October. If the plant is in flower, timing helps. (n = 96 and 32.)

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