| Classification |
| Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order Type: Eudicots-Rosids I
Order: Rosales
Family: Rosaceae
Family Common Name: Rose Family
Genera: Exochondra, Filipendula, Geum, Kerria, Malus, Neviusia,
Potentilla, Prinsepia, Rhodotypos, Rosa, Sanguisorba, Spiraea |
Defining Features: This heterogeneous
family is commonly divided into several subfamilies. There is a great diversity
in morphology that makes the family the source of debate among botanists.
One distinctive feature is the presence of a hypanthium - or cup-shaped
structure composed of the fusion of calyx, corolla and stamens.
Defining Morphology: Floral
Features: Inflorescences are various. Flowers are showy, actinomorphic,
and often bisexual with clawed petals. Hypanthium is often present. Flowers
have well developed nectary. Ovaries are superior or inferior with apical,
basal, lateral or axile placentation. Fruit and Seed Features: Dicotyledon.
Fruit a drupe, achene or pome (rarely a capsule) or an aggregate of achenes,
drupletes or follicles. Vegetative Features: Habit as herbs, shrubs, and
trees (occasionally vines). Leaves are alternate (rarely opposite) simple
to pinnate or palmate with stipules and serrate leaf margin.
Distribution: Worldwide, but
most diverse in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
Economic Use: The family is
extremely important as the source of many fruits and flowers. Its long
association with humans gives us the apple, strawberry, cherry, raspberry
and blackberry, the rose, which has myriad cultivars and whose fruits are
a potent source of vitamin C and the common ornamentals - the roses, spireas
and hawthorns. Wood is being used as timber or for furniture and cabinetry.
Number of Genera Globally: 85
Number of Species Globally: 3,000
