Both Cercis

Cercis canadensis vs Cercis occidentalis

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

Confused 10x by our model Same genus Cercis Method published

Side by sidefigs. a and b

Cercis canadensis, photographed by Zakqary Roy
fig. a Zakqary Roy, CC BY 4.0

Cercis canadensis

eastern redbud
Cercis occidentalis, photographed by Mary K. Hanson
fig. b Mary K. Hanson, CC BY 4.0

Cercis occidentalis

Western Redbud

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Cercis occidentalis Cercis canadensis 10 of 19 (53%)

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

What actually separates themon the record

Family Both Fabaceae. The family does not separate them.
Genus Both Cercis. Congeners, which is why this is hard.
Flowering Peaks in April versus March. If the plant is in flower, timing helps. (n = 5,620 and 431.)

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