Both Gentiana

Gentiana andrewsii vs Gentiana clausa

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 Same genus Gentiana Method published

Side by sidefigs. a and b

Gentiana andrewsii, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. a Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0

Gentiana andrewsii

closed bottle gentian
Gentiana clausa, photographed by Bernie Paquette
fig. b Bernie Paquette, CC BY 4.0

Gentiana clausa

bottle gentian

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Gentiana andrewsii Gentiana clausa 2 of 20 (10%)
Gentiana clausa Gentiana andrewsii 3 of 20 (15%)

The confusion is asymmetric, which is common and usually informative: it means one of these has a character the other lacks, rather than the two simply looking alike.

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

What actually separates themon the record

Family Both Gentianaceae. The family does not separate them.
Genus Both Gentiana. Congeners, which is why this is hard.
Flowering Peaks in September versus September. Timing does not separate them. (n = 1,161 and 745.)

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