Both Lycopodiaceae

Dendrolycopodium obscurum vs Diphasiastrum digitatum

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

Dendrolycopodium obscurum, photographed by Steven Lamonde
fig. a Steven Lamonde, CC BY 4.0

Dendrolycopodium obscurum

flat-branched tree-clubmoss
Diphasiastrum digitatum, photographed by Erin Lalime
fig. b Erin Lalime, CC BY 4.0

Diphasiastrum digitatum

fan clubmoss

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Dendrolycopodium obscurum Diphasiastrum digitatum 4 of 19 (21%)

The confusion runs one way only. The model mistakes Dendrolycopodium obscurum for Diphasiastrum digitatum, 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 Lycopodiaceae. The family does not separate them.
Genus Dendrolycopodium versus Diphasiastrum.

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