Many economically important products come from the Rosaceae, including various edible fruits, such as apples, pears, quinces, apricots, plums, cherries, peaches, raspberries, blackberries, loquats, strawberries, rose hips, hawthorns, and almonds.

The family also includes popular ornamental trees and shrubs, such as roses, meadowsweets, rowans, firethorns, and photinias.

[10] Among the most species-rich genera in the family are Alchemilla (270), Sorbus (260), Crataegus (260), Cotoneaster (260), Rubus (250),[9] and Prunus (200), which contains the plums, cherries, peaches, apricots, and almonds.

Paired stipules are generally present and are considered a primitive feature within the family, though they have been independently lost in many groups of Amygdaloideae (previously called Spiraeoideae).

The bases of the sepals, petals, and stamens are fused together to form a characteristic cup-like structure called a hypanthium.

[12] The fruits occur in many varieties and were once considered the main characters for the definition of subfamilies amongst Rosaceae, giving rise to a fundamentally artificial subdivision.

Schulze-Menz, in Engler's Syllabus edited by Melchior (1964) recognized Rosoideae, Dryadoideae, Lyonothamnoideae, Spireoideae, Amygdaloideae, and Maloideae.

Takhtajan (1997) delimited 21 tribes in 10 subfamilies:[4] Filipenduloideae, Rosoideae, Ruboideae, Potentilloideae, Coleogynoideae, Kerroideae, Amygdaloideae (Prunoideae), Spireoideae, Maloideae (Pyroideae), Dichotomanthoideae.

[27] Most recently Zhang et al. (2017) recovered these relationships using whole plastid genomes:[28] Maleae Gillenieae Spiraeeae Sorbarieae Amygdaleae Kerrieae Exochordeae Neillieae Lyonothamneae Potentilleae Roseae Agrimonieae Rubeae Colurieae Ulmarieae Dryadeae outgroup The sister relationship between Dryadoideae and Rosoideae is supported by the following shared morphological characters not found in Amygdaloideae: presence of stipules, separation of the hypanthium from the ovary, and the fruits are usually achenes.

[36] The following is taken from Potter et al. (2007):[15] Agrimonieae Potentilleae Roseae Colurieae Rubeae Ulmarieae Sorbarieae Maleae Gillenieae Spiraeeae Kerrieae Exochordeae Amygdaleae Neillieae Lyonothamneae Dryadeae outgroup The sister relationship between Amygdaloideae and Dryadoideae is supported by the following shared biochemical characters not found in Rosoideae: production of cyanogenic glycosides and production of sorbitol.

[9] The rose family is considered one of the six most economically important crop plant families,[37] and includes apples, pears, quinces, medlars, loquats, almonds, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, sloes, and roses.

These include trees and shrubs (Cotoneaster, Chaenomeles, Crataegus, Dasiphora, Exochorda, Kerria, Photinia, Physocarpus, Prunus, Pyracantha, Rhodotypos, Rosa, Sorbus, Spiraea), herbaceous perennials (Alchemilla, Aruncus, Filipendula, Geum, Potentilla, Sanguisorba), alpine plants (Dryas, Geum, Potentilla) and climbers (Rosa).