[6] Well-known members of Rosales include: roses, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries, apples and pears, plums, peaches and apricots, almonds, rowan and hawthorn, jujube, elms, banyans, figs, mulberries, breadfruit, nettles, hops, and cannabis.

The order Rosales is strongly supported as monophyletic in phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequences, such as those carried out by members of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group.

[8] These families and their placement in the APG III system are:[3] The relationships of Rosales families were resolved in a molecular phylogenetic study based on two nuclear genes and ten chloroplast genes:[9] Rosaceae Rhamnaceae Elaeagnaceae Barbeyaceae Dirachmaceae Ulmaceae Cannabaceae Moraceae Urticaceae The order Rosales is divided into three clades that have never been assigned a taxonomic rank.

[12] Wind-pollination is the way that the majority of the families that fall under the order Rosales (including Moraceae, Ulmaceae, and Urticaceae etc.)

Fruit produced by members of this family include apples, pears, plums, peaches, cherries, almonds, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries.

The latex of some species of fig trees contains the enzyme ficin, which is effective in killing roundworms that infect the intestinal tracts of animals.