Fagaceae and Bromeliaceae

Quercus virginiana vs Tillandsia usneoides

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

Quercus virginiana, photographed by Sawyer Baran
fig. a Sawyer Baran, CC BY 4.0

Quercus virginiana

southern live oak
Tillandsia usneoides, photographed by Joseph Aubert
fig. b Joseph Aubert, CC BY 4.0

Tillandsia usneoides

Spanish moss

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Quercus virginiana Tillandsia usneoides 3 of 20 (15%)

The confusion runs one way only. The model mistakes Quercus virginiana for Tillandsia usneoides, but not the reverse.

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

What actually separates themon the record

Family Fagaceae versus Bromeliaceae. Different families, which is a real separation.
Genus Quercus versus Tillandsia.

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