Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

To the Romans, “Rosa” meant a generic five-petaled flower. In fact, almost any five-petaled flower you see is from the “Rosaceae” family.

And May is the month when their flowers are everywhere.

The family includes such wildflowers as “cream bush, toyon, cinquefoil, horkelia, blackberry, thimbleberry and strawberries.“

“The fruits formed from the Rosaceae flowers …include apples (Malus), almonds, cherries, peaches, nectarines, plums, sloe, and prunes (Prunus), pears (Pyrus), blackberry, loganberry, boysenberry, raspberry (Rubus), strawberries (Fragaria), quince (Cydonia), loquat (Eriobotrya), rose hips (Rosa), medlar (Mespilus)…. Rosaceae also account at least one nut, the almonds (Prunus)….

“The Rosaceae family includes four subfamilies.

1. Rosoideae: many shrubs, perennial herbs, few annual, deep hypanthium, fruit hip, flat-like appearance, including genus Rosa, Rubus, Geum.
2. Prunoideae: woody plants, trees or shrubs, one carpel, pit, includes peaches, plums, cherries, nectarines, apricots, almonds.
3. Spiraeoideae: mostly woody trees and shrubs with a few herbaceous perennials, flat like appearance, including genus Aruncus, Spiraea.
4. Maloideae: trees and shrubs, fruit pome, including genus Aronia, Crataegus, Malus, Sorbus.”