**Description and Economic Importance**:
– Rosaceae includes woody trees, shrubs, climbers, and herbaceous plants.
– They can be deciduous or evergreen and have a worldwide range.
– Economically important products from Rosaceae include various edible fruits and ornamental trees.
– The family comprises 4,828 known species in 91 genera.
**Morphology**:
– Leaves are generally spirally arranged, with some having an opposite arrangement.
– They can be simple or pinnately compound, with serrate margins.
– Glands or nectaries may be present on leaf margins or petioles.
– Spines may be found on leaflets and compound leaves.
**Flowers and Reproduction**:
– Flowers are showy, radially symmetrical, and hermaphroditic.
– Rosaceae flowers typically have five sepals, petals, and many stamens.
– Bases of sepals, petals, and stamens fuse to form a hypanthium.
– Flowers can be arranged in spikes or heads, with rare solitary flowers.
**Fruits, Seeds, and Taxonomy**:
– Fruits in Rosaceae vary and were once used to define subfamilies.
– Many fruits are edible, but seeds may contain amygdalin.
– Rosaceae was traditionally divided into six subfamilies, later refined to three.
– Taxonomic history includes various subfamily classifications by different authors.
**Research and Evolution**:
– Taxonomic studies conducted globally.
– Evolutionary implications studied in Rosaceae.
– Diversification since the Late Cretaceous.
– Genome duplication impact on evolution.
Rosaceae (/roʊˈzeɪsiː.iː, -si.aɪ/), the rose family, is a medium-sized family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera.
| Rosaceae Temporal range:
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| Flower of Rosa pouzinii | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Rosales |
| Family: | Rosaceae Juss. |
| Subfamilies | |
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| Global distribution of Rosaceae | |
| Synonyms | |
The name is derived from the type genus Rosa. Among the most species-rich genera are Alchemilla (270), Sorbus (260), Crataegus (260), Cotoneaster (260), Rubus (250), and Prunus (200), which contains the plums, cherries, peaches, apricots, and almonds. However, all of these numbers should be seen as estimates—much taxonomic work remains.
The family Rosaceae includes herbs, shrubs, and trees. Most species are deciduous, but some are evergreen. They have a worldwide range but are most diverse in the Northern Hemisphere.
Many economically important products come from the Rosaceae, including various edible fruits, such as apples, pears, quinces, apricots, plums, cherries, peaches, raspberries, blackberries, loquats, strawberries, rose hips, hawthorns, and almonds. The family also includes popular ornamental trees and shrubs, such as roses, meadowsweets, rowans, firethorns, and photinias.