Both Solanum
Solanum carolinense vs Solanum douglasii
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, 5 times. We publish the rate, and then we tell you what actually separates them.
Side by sidefigs. a and b
Solanum carolinense
Carolina horsenettle
Solanum douglasii
greenspot nightshade
How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated
| When the plant was | The model said | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Solanum douglasii | Solanum carolinense | 5 of 19 (26%) |
Measured on 38,949 openly licensed, research-grade photographs. Full method and dataset.
What actually separates themon the record
| Family | Both Solanaceae. The family does not separate them. |
|---|---|
| Genus | Both Solanum. Congeners, which is why this is hard. |
| Flowering | Peaks in June versus November. If the plant is in flower, timing helps. (n = 3,933 and 685.) |
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.