Editing Rosaceae (section)

=== Taxonomic history ===
The family was traditionally divided into six subfamilies: [[Rosoideae]], [[Spiraeoideae]], [[Maloideae]] (Pomoideae), [[Amygdaloideae]] (Prunoideae), Neuradoideae, and Chrysobalanoideae, and most of these were treated as families by various authors.<ref>Caratini, Roger. La Vie de plantes. 1971. Encyclopédie Bordas.</ref><ref>Lawrence, G.H.M. 1960. ''Taxonomy of Vascular Plants''. Macmillan.</ref> More recently (1971), Chrysobalanoideae was placed in Malpighiales in molecular analyses and Neuradoideae has been assigned to Malvales. Schulze-Menz, in Engler's Syllabus edited by Melchior (1964) recognized Rosoideae, Dryadoideae, Lyonothamnoideae, Spireoideae, Amygdaloideae, and Maloideae.<ref>{{cite book | author = Schulze-Menz GK. | year = 1964 | chapter = Rosaceae | editor = Melchior H | title = Engler's Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien | volume = II | edition = 12 | publisher = Gebrüder Borntraeger | location = Berlin | pages = 209–218 }}</ref> They were primarily diagnosed by the structure of the fruits. More recent work has identified that not all of these groups were [[monophyletic]]. Hutchinson (1964)<ref>{{cite book |
 author = Hutchinson J. | year = 1964 | title = The Genera of Flowering Plants | volume = 1, Dicotyledons | publisher = Clarendon Press | location = Oxford | pages = 1–516}}</ref> and Kalkman (2004) <ref>{{cite book | author = Kalkman C. | year = 2004 | chapter = Rosaceae | editor = Kubitzki K | series = The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants | volume = 6 | title = Flowering plants—Dicotyledons: Celastrales, Oxalidales, Rosales, Cornales, Ericales | publisher = Springer-Verlag | location = Berlin Heidelberg | pages = 343–386 | isbn = 978-3-540-06512-8 | doi = 10.1007/978-3-662-07257-8 | s2cid = 12809916 | edition = 1}}</ref> recognized only tribes (17 and 21, respectively). Takhtajan (1997) delimited 21 tribes in 10 subfamilies:<ref name="Takhtajan" /> Filipenduloideae, Rosoideae, Ruboideae, Potentilloideae, Coleogynoideae, Kerroideae, Amygdaloideae (Prunoideae), Spireoideae, Maloideae (Pyroideae), Dichotomanthoideae. A more modern model comprises three subfamilies, one of which (Rosoideae) has largely remained the same.

While the boundaries of the Rosaceae are not disputed, there is no general agreement as to how many genera it contains. Areas of divergent opinion include the treatment of ''[[Potentilla]] s.l.'' and ''[[Sorbus]] s.l.''. Compounding the problem is that [[apomixis]] is common in several genera. This results in an uncertainty in the number of species contained in each of these genera, due to the difficulty of dividing apomictic complexes into species. For example, ''[[Cotoneaster]]'' contains between 70 and 300 species, ''[[Rose|Rosa]]'' around 100 (including the taxonomically complex [[dog rose]]s), ''[[Sorbus]]'' 100 to 200 species, ''[[Crataegus]]'' between 200 and 1,000, ''[[Alchemilla]]'' around 300 species, ''[[Potentilla]]'' roughly 500, and ''[[Rubus]]'' hundreds, or possibly even thousands of species.