Passifloraceae and Lauraceae

Passiflora tetrandra vs Umbellularia californica

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

Passiflora tetrandra, photographed by Jenny Saito
fig. a Jenny Saito, CC BY 4.0

Passiflora tetrandra

New Zealand passionflower
Umbellularia californica, photographed by Michael Warner
fig. b Michael Warner, CC BY 4.0

Umbellularia californica

California bay

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Passiflora tetrandra Umbellularia californica 3 of 19 (16%)

The confusion runs one way only. The model mistakes Passiflora tetrandra for Umbellularia californica, but not the reverse.

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

What actually separates themon the record

Family Passifloraceae versus Lauraceae. Different families, which is a real separation.
Genus Passiflora versus Umbellularia.
Flowering Peaks in November versus February. If the plant is in flower, timing helps. (n = 73 and 912.)

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