Alternative names: Not Applicable

Description:
Annual herbs to woody shrubs or trees with alternate simple or compound stipulate leaves; the stipules sometimes adnate to the petiole.

Flowers axillary or in racemes or cymes, usually bisexual and regular; calyx single (with 4 or 5 sepals) or double (with a similar number of alternate outer sepals); petals 4 or 5, caducous, sometimes 0; sepals and petals inserted at the summit of the torus; stamens 2-numerous; perigynous or epigynous; gynoecium of 1 or more 1-celled carpels, superior or sometimes becoming inferior through union with the hollow receptacle, each carpel usually with 1 style and 1 or 2 anatropous ovules.

The fruits or fruitlets consisting of the ripe indehiscent carpels, which may be dry or succulent, either raised on the extended and convex receptacle (gynophore) or sunk in the hollow receptacle, which may be succulent and form a false berry (Rosa), or fleshy and united to the carpels, forming a sort of false drupe sometimes called a pome (Crataegus), or may be hard and dry, forming a false nut (Aphanes and Acaena); seeds with a straight embryo, broad fleshy cotyledons and little or no albumen. The hollow receptacle of many genera with superior carpels so encloses the fruiting carpels that it may easily be mistaken for an inferior ovary.

Distribution:  About 2,000 species in 100 genera, cosmopolitan.

Biology: No text

Uses: An important family with few native Australian genera. It includes many important horticultural crops such as apricot (Prunus armeniaca), apple (Malus sylvestris), loquat (Eriobotrya japonica), peach (Prunus persica), pear (Pyrus communis), plum (Prunus domestica), quince ( Cydonia oblonga), raspberry (Rubus idaeus) and strawberry (Fragaria yesca). Ornamentals include roses (Rosa), hawthorns (Crataegus) and spiraea (Spiraea); blackberries (Rubus spp.) are notorious weeds.

Key to Genera:

1. Herbs
2. Petals and outer calyx present; carpels numerous on a dry convex torus	POTENTILLA 8.
2. Petals absent; carpels 1 or 2, enclosed in dry hollow receptacular tube, but not united with it
3. Outer calyx present; receptacle smooth; leaves palmatifid	APHANES 7.
3. Outer calyx absent; leaves pinnate
4. Receptacle prickly	ACAENA 6.
4. Receptacle pitted	SANGUISORBA 11.
1. Woody plants
5. Shrubs or sprawlers with hooked prickles
6. Carpels becoming little drupes united in a juicy head on a convex receptacle	RUBUS 10.
6. Carpels becoming achenes free within the hollow more or less succulent receptacle	ROSA 9.
5. Shrubs or trees; unarmed or juvenile phases with straight pungent spines
7. Evergreen shrubs
8. Leaves more than 8 cm long, glossy	PRUNUS 12.
8. Leaves less than 3 cm long, sparsely pubescent	COTONEASTER 1.
7. Deciduous shrubs or trees
9. Ovary more or less superior; flowers solitary or in small clusters; fruit a drupe; endocarp bony	PRUNUS 12.
9. Ovary more or less inferior; flowers in corymbs (Cydonia solitary); fruit a pome
10. Flowers solitary; leaves entire	CYDONIA 3.
10. Flowers in corymbs; leaves lobed or serrate
11. Leaves with 3-5 lobes; fruits in a small cluster, red; mostly less than 2 cm diam	CRATAEGUS 2.
11. Leaves serrate, not lobed; fruit mostly solitary, more than 2 cm diam
12. Leaves more or less glossy, glabrous; fruit with abundant stone cells	PYRUS 5.
12. Leaves more or less dull, more or less pubescent below, fruit without stone cells	MALUS 4.

Author: Woody genera prepared by D. E. Symon, others by J.P. Jessop