Asteraceae and Nyctaginaceae
Baccharis pilularis vs Mirabilis laevis
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.
Confused 5x by our model Method published
Side by sidefigs. a and b
Baccharis pilularis
coyote brush
Mirabilis laevis
Wishbone Bush
How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated
| When the plant was | The model said | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Mirabilis laevis | Baccharis pilularis | 5 of 20 (25%) |
Measured on 38,299 openly licensed, research-grade photographs. Full method and dataset.
What actually separates themon the record
| Family | Asteraceae versus Nyctaginaceae. Different families, which is a real separation. |
|---|---|
| Genus | Baccharis versus Mirabilis. |
| Flowering | Peaks in October versus March. If the plant is in flower, timing helps. (n = 4,648 and 2,373.) |
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.