Cornaceae and Melanthiaceae
Cornus canadensis vs Trillium grandiflorum
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
Cornus canadensis
Canadian bunchberry
Trillium grandiflorum
large white trillium
How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated
| When the plant was | The model said | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Trillium grandiflorum | Cornus canadensis | 3 of 20 (15%) |
Measured on 38,299 openly licensed, research-grade photographs. Full method and dataset.
What actually separates themon the record
| Family | Cornaceae versus Melanthiaceae. Different families, which is a real separation. |
|---|---|
| Genus | Cornus versus Trillium. |
| Flowering | Peaks in June versus May. If the plant is in flower, timing helps. (n = 5,261 and 28,048.) |
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.