To be published in 30 volumes, Flora of North America represents the first and only comprehensive taxonomic guide to the extraordinary diversity of plant life blanketing our continent north of Mexico. The collaborative effort of more than 30 major U.S. and Canadian botanical institutions, this ground-breaking scholarly series revises and synthesizes literally thousands of floristic monographs and regional floras published over the last three centuries.

Flora of North America Volume 9 includes four families - Picramniaceae (bitter-bush family), Staphyleaceae (bladdernut family), Crossosomataceae (crossosoma family), and Rosaceae (rose family). This volume contains treatments of nearly 700 species with over 98% of them being species of Rosaceae.

Every genus has representative taxa illustrated to aid in plant identification and to demonstrate the morphological variation that exists for these families in North America. Many economically important plants with edible fruits are members of the Rosaceae, with both native and introduced species known and consumed by people: apples, pears, peaches, almonds, apricots, plums, cherries, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries are probably the most commonly utilized. Other members of the Rosaceae, many of great horticultural interest worldwide, are also noteworthy in the North American flora, including roses, hawthorns, cinquefoils, firethorns, quinces, chokecherries, shadbushes, mountain ashes, and loquats.

Concise, easy to use, and beautifully bound and illustrated, Flora of North America is an indispensable working resource for botanists, conservationists, ecologists, agronomists, foresters, range and land managers, horticulturists -- anyone with a series interest in the distribution, habitat, morphology, and survival of the wide-ranging plant life around us.