Rose, common name for a medium-size family of flowering plants with many important fruit and ornamental species, and for its representative genus. Worldwide in distribution, the rose family contains about 107 genera and 3100 species.
The rose family is placed in an order with 24 other families. This order is sometimes referred to as the rose order. Other important members of the order include the saxifrage family and the stonecrop family. Another family, the coco-plum family, occurs in the lowland Tropics and contains about 400 species, several of which are used locally for their timber, oilseeds, and fruits. Perhaps the best-known member of the family is the coco plum, found in southern Florida on sandy beaches and swamps; its sweet fruits are made into jelly or preserves.
Plants of the rose order may vary greatly in habit, from trees to shrubs or often perennial herbs. The leaves usually have stipules leaflike appendages at the base of the leafstalk and are often compound. The flowers usually have five sepals outer floral whorl and five petals inner floral whorl and numerous stamens male floral organs. The female portion of the flower consists of from one to many pistils, which are free from one another or are variously fused. The ovary or ovaries egg-producing portion of the pistil are hypogynous or, more often, perigynous half-inferior, with the sepals, petals, and stamen borne on the rim of a tubular structure surrounding the ovary base.
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