Nymphaeaceae and Pontederiaceae

Nuphar advena vs Pontederia crassipes

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

Nuphar advena, photographed by Skyler Principe
fig. a Skyler Principe, CC BY 4.0

Nuphar advena

spatterdock
Pontederia crassipes, photographed by Tom Riggle
fig. b Tom Riggle, CC BY-SA 4.0

Pontederia crassipes

common water hyacinth

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Nuphar advena Pontederia crassipes 3 of 20 (15%)

The confusion runs one way only. The model mistakes Nuphar advena for Pontederia crassipes, but not the reverse.

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

What actually separates themon the record

Family Nymphaeaceae versus Pontederiaceae. Different families, which is a real separation.
Genus Nuphar versus Pontederia.

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