Sapindaceae and Moraceae

Acer campestre vs Ficus carica

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

Acer campestre, photographed by Paul Dubery
fig. a Paul Dubery, CC0 1.0

Acer campestre

field maple
Ficus carica, photographed by velodrome
fig. b velodrome, CC BY 4.0

Ficus carica

common fig

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Acer campestre Ficus carica 3 of 19 (16%)

The confusion runs one way only. The model mistakes Acer campestre for Ficus carica, but not the reverse.

Measured on 38,299 openly licensed, research-grade photographs. Full method and dataset.

What actually separates themon the record

Family Sapindaceae versus Moraceae. Different families, which is a real separation.
Genus Acer versus Ficus.
Flowering Peaks in April versus April. Timing does not separate them. (n = 273 and 95.)

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