LEAVES: alternate (except Coleogyne), stipulate, simple to compound or dissected.

PLANT: Plants herbaceous or woody.

INFLORESCENCE: usually more or less cymose.

FLOWERS: perfect, actinomorphic, often bearing 5 bracteoles; hypanthium bearing sepals, petals, and stamens; sepals usually 5; petals usually 5, distinct, often showy; stamens usually 10 many in whorls of 5; receptacle sometimes enlarged; pistils 1 many, each of 1 5 carpels, the ovaries superior to inferior.

FRUIT: an achene, follicle, drupe, pome, hip, aggregate or accessory. x = 7 9, 14 17.

NOTES: Ca. 100 genera, ca. 3,000 spp., worldwide, concentrated in temperate and subtropical n. hemisphere. Many cultivated for fruits (Fragaria, Malus, Prunus, Pyrus, Rubus, etc.) and as ornamentals (Crataegus, Pyracantha, Rosa, Sorbus, Spiraea, etc.).

REFERENCES: Brasher, Jeffrey W. 2001. Rosaceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 33(1).