Both Rosaceae

Fragaria virginiana vs Potentilla indica

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

Fragaria virginiana, photographed by webohms
fig. a webohms, CC BY 4.0

Fragaria virginiana

Virginia strawberry
Potentilla indica, photographed by Michael and Antoni Hinczewski
fig. b Michael and Antoni Hinczewski, CC BY 4.0

Potentilla indica

mock strawberry

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Fragaria virginiana Potentilla indica 3 of 20 (15%)

The confusion runs one way only. The model mistakes Fragaria virginiana for Potentilla indica, but not the reverse.

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

What actually separates themon the record

Family Both Rosaceae. The family does not separate them.
Genus Fragaria versus Potentilla.
Flowering Peaks in May versus April. If the plant is in flower, timing helps. (n = 8,534 and 4,719.)

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