Anacardiaceae and Rosaceae
Rhus glabra vs Sorbus americana
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
Rhus glabra
smooth sumac
Sorbus americana
American mountain ash
How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated
| When the plant was | The model said | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Sorbus americana | Rhus glabra | 3 of 18 (17%) |
Measured on 38,299 openly licensed, research-grade photographs. Full method and dataset.
What actually separates themon the record
| Family | Anacardiaceae versus Rosaceae. Different families, which is a real separation. |
|---|---|
| Genus | Rhus versus Sorbus. |
| Flowering | Peaks in June versus June. Timing does not separate them. (n = 2,002 and 185.) |
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.