Wildlife
The rose family encompasses much more than beautiful ornamental flowers, as it includes some of the world's tastiest fruits. Favourites such as apples, peaches, cherries and strawberries are all in this diverse family. However it also holds some invasive plants that need to controlled as weeds. As would be expected from such a large family of flowering plants (there are over 3,000 species) they're to be found everywhere except Antarctica. Members of the rose family can be herbs, shrubs or trees. Most species are deciduous, though some are evergreen.
The Rose family can be found in a number of locations including: Asia, Australia, Europe, Indian subcontinent, North America. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web
Discover the other animals and plants that lived during the following geological time periods.
Rosaceae (the rose family) are a medium-sized family of flowering plants, including about 2830 species in 95 genera. The name is derived from the type genus Rosa. Among the largest genera are Alchemilla (270), Sorbus (260), Crataegus (260), Cotoneaster (260), and Rubus (250). The largest genus by far is Prunus (plums, cherries, peaches, apricots and almonds) with about 430 species. However, all of these numbers should be seen as underestimates - much taxonomic work is left to be done here.
Roses can be herbs, shrubs or trees. Most species are deciduous, but some are evergreen. They have a worldwide range, but are most diverse in the northern hemisphere.
Several economically important products come from Rosaceae, including many edible fruits (such as apples, apricots, plums, cherries, peaches, pears, raspberries, and strawberries), almonds, and ornamental trees and shrubs (such as roses, meadowsweets, photinias, firethorns, rowans, and hawthorns).
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Cretaceous period
Palaeocene epoch
Eocene epoch
Oligocene epoch
Miocene epoch
Pliocene epoch
Pleistocene epoch
Holocene epoch