Both Poaceae

Cynosurus echinatus vs Lagurus ovatus

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

Cynosurus echinatus, photographed by CorentinD
fig. a CorentinD, CC BY 4.0

Cynosurus echinatus

bristly dogtail grass
Lagurus ovatus, photographed by James K. Douch
fig. b James K. Douch, CC BY-SA 4.0

Lagurus ovatus

Hare's Tail Grass

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Cynosurus echinatus Lagurus ovatus 3 of 19 (16%)

The confusion runs one way only. The model mistakes Cynosurus echinatus for Lagurus ovatus, but not the reverse.

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

What actually separates themon the record

Family Both Poaceae. The family does not separate them.
Genus Cynosurus versus Lagurus.
Flowering Peaks in May versus May. Timing does not separate them. (n = 148 and 453.)

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