Rosaceae

Rosaceae

Rosa arvensis

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Rosales
Family:	Rosaceae

Subfamiles

Rosoideae
Spiraeoideae
Maloideae
Amygdaloideae or Prunoideae

Table of contents

1 Synonyms and common names
2 Subfamilies
3 References

Subfamilies

The Rosaceae is divided into four subfamilies, mainly on the basis of how the fruit develops:

Subfamily Rosoideae: Many small fruits, each of which is an achene or drupelet, and often the fleshy part of the fruit (e.g. strawberry) is the hypanthium or the stalk bearing the carpels.
Subfamily Spiraeoideae: A non-fleshy fruit consisting of five capsules.
Subfamily Maloideae: Five capsules (called "cores") in a fleshy endocarp, surrounded by the ripened stem tissue. This structure is called a "pome". Apple, pear, quince, hawthorn.
Subfamily Amygdaloideae (or Prunoideae): A single drupe with a seam, two veins next to the seam, and one vein opposite the seam. Peach, almond, cherry.

The rose is a rose
and was always a rose;
But the theory now goes
That the apple's a rose,
And the pear is, and so's
The plum, I suppose.
The dear only knows
What will next prove a rose.
You, my love, are a rose,
but were always a rose.

- Robert Frost, "The Rose Family"

References

http://www.life.uiuc.edu/plantbio/260/Rosaceae/Rosehome.html as of 2002-05-29