Contemporary Circumscription Compared with A Utah Flora 4th ed.
Bio430
Rosaceae
No substantial differences. A few elements that have been questionably placed in the family have been realigned elsewhere.
Key Features
Herbs, Shrubs, or trees with stipules, hypanthium, many stamens and 1 to many free pistils; fruits are various and have been used to define subfamilies, though these are not all monophyletic.
long, linear stipules at the base of apple leaves
Strawberry with stolons
Rosa woodsii
Blackberry fruits are aggregates of druplets; free from each other, but fused to receptacle
Apricot blossoms
Cherrys are drupes with pericarp forming 3 distinct layers; the pit is hard ovary tissue called endocarp.
Section through rose hip showing achenes from superior ovaries. The wall of the hip is hypanthium, not ovary tissue.
Short claw on apple petal; swollen area below sepals is inferior ovary
Apple blossum sectioned to reveal ovules in inferior ovary
Distinction between ovules, ovary, and stem tissue can be seen in this section of an inferior ovary from crabapple
yellow-green area between stem & sepals in this strawberry flower is hypanthium; between & just below sepals are intersepalar bracts
Small stipules at base of cliff rose leaves
cliff rose has elongated hypanthium with 5 superior, hairy pistils inside; you can see the stigmas
Cliff rose, maturing fruits
extra petals in cultivated roses are bred by converting stamens to petals
Geum compound leaves with stipules
Wild strawberry
Raspberries are aggregates of druplets tightly adhering to each other so the receptacle, shown with sepals and stamens, is left attached to plant
Waldensteinia fragarioides showing hypanthium with 2 superior pistils
Prunus in flower; hypanthium and superior single pistl
Red raspberry druplets with individual styles for each pistil
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