Both Poaceae

Dactylis glomerata vs Holcus lanatus

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

Dactylis glomerata, photographed by Erin Springinotic
fig. a Erin Springinotic, CC0 1.0

Dactylis glomerata

orchard grass
Holcus lanatus, photographed by Juraj Ahel
fig. b Juraj Ahel, CC BY 4.0

Holcus lanatus

Yorkshire fog

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Holcus lanatus Dactylis glomerata 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 Poaceae. The family does not separate them.
Genus Dactylis versus Holcus.
Flowering Peaks in June versus June. Timing does not separate them. (n = 7,174 and 792.)

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