Both Dicentra

Dicentra cucullaria vs Dicentra formosa

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 Same genus Dicentra Method published

Side by sidefigs. a and b

Dicentra cucullaria, photographed by Clay Gibbons
fig. a Clay Gibbons, CC BY 4.0

Dicentra cucullaria

Dutchman's breeches
Dicentra formosa, photographed by Jens-Christian Svenning
fig. b Jens-Christian Svenning, CC BY 4.0

Dicentra formosa

Pacific Bleeding Heart

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Dicentra formosa Dicentra cucullaria 3 of 18 (17%)

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

What actually separates themon the record

Family Both Papaveraceae. The family does not separate them.
Genus Both Dicentra. Congeners, which is why this is hard.
Flowering Peaks in April versus April. Timing does not separate them. (n = 18,649 and 6,415.)

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