The rose family or Rosaceae is a large and very popular family of flowering plants containing over a hundred genera and between 3,000 and 4,000 species, primarily but not exclusively inhabiting northern temperate regions. The structure and makeup of the family is still under study. This is a very diverse family and it's difficult to describe features that apply to all members. In size they vary from herbs to shrubs to trees, leaves are usually alternate, simple to pinnate or palmate, the flowers are almost always perfect (having both stamens and carpels), regular (radially symmetric), and contain many stamens, usually more than twice the number of petals. The fruits are of various types. This is an important economic family, including such fruit crops as blackberries and raspberries, strawberries, apples, pears, almonds, apricots, cherries, peaches and plums.