Sorbeae Koehne, Gatt. 6 Apr 1890. 30 Jun 1806. Economically, few families have as many important cultivated trees, shrubs and herbs, or as many valuable fruit crop plants as the Rosaceae. There is hardly a garden in temperate regions of the world without a member of this family somewhere, even if only a weed.
Vast industries revolve around apples, apricots, plums, peaches, and pears.
Grocery stores carry a variety of raspberries, blackberries and even wineberries at certain times of the season. The popularity of the strawberry now means that it is grown and shipped so widely, that one can consume the fruit throughout the year. In Maryland, flowering trees of wild prunes, serviceberry, crabapples and the ubiquitous Bradford pear are symbolic of early spring. Taxonomic problems abound, not the least because of the dominance of apomixis in such genera as Rubus and Crataegus . The definition of genera in the Potentilleae is particularly nasty.