Both Lamiaceae
Lepechinia calycina vs Melissa officinalis
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
Lepechinia calycina
California Pitcher Sage
Melissa officinalis
lemon balm
How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated
| When the plant was | The model said | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Melissa officinalis | Lepechinia calycina | 3 of 19 (16%) |
Measured on 38,299 openly licensed, research-grade photographs. Full method and dataset.
What actually separates themon the record
| Family | Both Lamiaceae. The family does not separate them. |
|---|---|
| Genus | Lepechinia versus Melissa. |
| Flowering | Peaks in May versus July. If the plant is in flower, timing helps. (n = 1,484 and 490.) |
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.