The rose family is very large with an estimated 3000 species and includes many well-known types of fruit as well as numerous ornamental shrubs and trees, with the roses, which give it its name, being the most important. There are only a few common characteristics within the family, while the individual members differ greatly in numerous characteristics.

You can see that wild roses are a little related to apples and the like

Rose plants at a glance

  • Class: Flowering Plant
  • Order: Roses (Rosales)
  • Family: Rose family (Rosaceae)
  • Subfamilies: Spiraeoideae (spiraea-like), Rosoideae (rose-like), Maloideae (apple-like), Prunoideae (stone fruit family)
  • Genera: about 90 different ones
  • Species: about 3000 different ones
  • Growth forms: Trees, shrubs or herbaceous plants
  • Distribution: worldwide, but mainly in the northern hemisphere
  • Typical features: flower base often involved in fruit formation
  • Location: very different depending on the species
  • Flower: usually five sepals and five petals
  • Fruits: different, aggregate or stone fruits, nuts etc.
  • Foliage: alternate with stipules
  • Use: many ornamental and useful plants

Great economic importance of the rose family

Roses, apples, pears, quince, plums, strawberries, raspberries, ranunculus, almonds, peaches, cherries, hawthorn, medlar, goat's beard, lady's mantle and many other well-known garden plants appear so different on the outside, but they have one thing in common: they are more or less closely related and are therefore counted in the rose family. Within these there are many fruit trees and shrubs as well as ornamental plants of great economic importance. Above all, the different types of fruit (not only strawberries and raspberries, but also all types of stone and pome fruit belong to this large plant family) are immensely important for humans in terms of nutrition.

Peculiarities in flower structure

When you get a chance, pick up an apple blossom and a wild rose blossom and take a closer look at both. You will notice that the structure of both flowers is congruent, because both types have flowers with five sepals and five petals in a radially symmetrical structure. Even the double flowers of some noble and shrub roses have the same structure, even if they look completely different on the surface. Here, only the pollen has been transformed into more petals. It is also typical that in many rose plants, part of the base of the flower forms the fruit, for example by covering the ovules with thick flesh, as in the case of pome fruit (e.g. in the case of apples or pears).

tips

Most rose plants have very large flowers, which are usually hermaphroditic and dependent on cross-pollination.

Category:

Vegetable garden