Both Pinus

Pinus coulteri vs Pinus jeffreyi

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 Pinus Method published

Side by sidefigs. a and b

Pinus coulteri, photographed by velodrome
fig. a velodrome, CC BY 4.0

Pinus coulteri

Coulter pine
Pinus jeffreyi, photographed by Amthinkia
fig. b Amthinkia, CC0 1.0

Pinus jeffreyi

Jeffrey pine

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Pinus coulteri Pinus jeffreyi 3 of 19 (16%)

The confusion runs one way only. The model mistakes Pinus coulteri for Pinus jeffreyi, 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 Pinaceae. The family does not separate them.
Genus Both Pinus. Congeners, which is why this is hard.

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