Cabombaceae and Nymphaeaceae

Brasenia schreberi vs Nymphaea odorata

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

Confused 6x by our model Method published

Side by sidefigs. a and b

Brasenia schreberi, photographed by Lynn Harper
fig. a Lynn Harper, CC0 1.0

Brasenia schreberi

Watershield
Nymphaea odorata, photographed by Lynn Harper
fig. b Lynn Harper, CC0 1.0

Nymphaea odorata

American white waterlily

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Brasenia schreberi Nymphaea odorata 6 of 20 (30%)

The confusion runs one way only. The model mistakes Brasenia schreberi for Nymphaea odorata, but not the reverse.

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

What actually separates themon the record

Family Cabombaceae versus Nymphaeaceae. Different families, which is a real separation.
Genus Brasenia versus Nymphaea.
Flowering Peaks in July versus July. Timing does not separate them. (n = 894 and 4,739.)

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