Both Iridaceae

Romulea rosea vs Sisyrinchium bellum

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, 4 times. We publish the rate, and then we tell you what actually separates them.

Confused 4x by our model Method published

Side by sidefigs. a and b

Romulea rosea, photographed by Leon Perrie
fig. a Leon Perrie, CC BY 4.0

Romulea rosea

Rosy sandcrocus
Sisyrinchium bellum, photographed by Michael Warner
fig. b Michael Warner, CC BY 4.0

Sisyrinchium bellum

western blue-eyed grass

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Romulea rosea Sisyrinchium bellum 4 of 15 (27%)

The confusion runs one way only. The model mistakes Romulea rosea for Sisyrinchium bellum, 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 Iridaceae. The family does not separate them.
Genus Romulea versus Sisyrinchium.
Flowering Peaks in September versus April. If the plant is in flower, timing helps. (n = 1,245 and 5,773.)

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