Род Слива (Prunus)

Genus of trees and shrubs

Automatic taxobox
| fossil range =
| image = Frühling blühender Kirschenbaum. jpg
| image caption = Prunus cerasus (sour cherry) in bloom
| display parents = 2
| taxon = Prunus
| authority = L.
| subdivision ranks =
| subdivision =
| type species = P. domestica
| type species authority = L.
| synonyms = *Amygdalopersica Daniel
Amygdalophora M. Roem. Amygdalopsis M. Roem. Amygdalus L.
Armeniaca Scop. being native to the North American temperate regions, the neotropics of South America, and temperate and tropical regions of Asia and Africa, There are 340 accepted species. Many members of the genus are widely cultivated for their fruit and for decorative purposes. Prunus fruit are drupes, or stone fruits. The fleshy mesocarp surrounding the endocarp is edible while the endocarp itself forms a hard, inedible shell called the pyrena ("stone" or "pit"). This shell encloses the seed (or "kernel"), which is edible in some species (such as sweet almonds), but poisonous in many others (such as apricots). Besides being eaten off the hand, most Prunus fruit are also commonly used in processing, such as jam production, canning, drying, and the seeds for roasting.

Members of the genus can be deciduous or evergreen. A few species have spiny stems. The leaves are simple, alternate, usually lanceolate, unlobed, and often with nectaries on the leaf stalk along with stipules. The flowers are usually white to pink, sometimes red, with five petals and five sepals. Numerous stamens are present. Flowers are borne singly, or in umbels of two to six or sometimes more on racemes. The fruit is a fleshy drupe (a "prune") with a single relatively large, hard coated seed (a "stone"). Within the rose family Rosaceae, it was traditionally placed as a subfamily, the Amygdaloideae (incorrectly "Prunoideae"), but was sometimes placed in its own family, the Prunaceae (or Amygdalaceae). More recently, Prunus is thought to have evolved from within a much larger clade now called subfamily Amygdaloideae (incorrectly "Spiraeoideae").

In 1737, Carl Linnaeus used four genera to include the species of modern Prunus—Amygdalus, Cerasus, Prunus, and Padus—but simplified it to Amygdalus and Prunus in 1758. Since then, the various genera of Linnaeus and others have become subgenera and sections, as all the species clearly are more closely related. Liberty Hyde Bailey said: "The numerous forms grade into each other so imperceptibly and inextricably that the genus cannot be readily broken up into species."

The lists below are incomplete, but include most of the better known species.

P. africana – African cherry
P. apetala – clove cherry
P. armeniaca – apricot
P. avium – sweet cherry or wild cherry
P. brigantina – Briançon apricot
P. buergeriana – dog cherry
P. campanulata – Taiwan cherry
P. canescens – gray leaf cherry
P. cerasifera – cherry plum
P. cerasoides – wild Himalayan cherry
P. cerasus – sour cherry
P. ceylanica
P. cocomilia – Italian plum
P. cornuta – Himalayan bird cherry
P. davidiana – David's peach
P. darvasica – Darvaz plum
P. domestica – common plum
P. dulcis – almond
P. fruticosa – European dwarf cherry
P. glandulosa – Chinese bush cherry
P. grayana – Japanese bird cherry
P. incana – willow leaf cherry
P. incisa – Fuji cherry
P. jacquemontii – Afghan bush cherry
P. japonica – Japanese bush cherry
P. laurocerasus – cherry laurel
P. lusitanica – Portugal laurel
P. maackii – Manchurian cherry
P. mahaleb – Mahaleb cherry
P. mandshurica – Manchurian apricot
P. maximowiczii – Korean cherry
P. mume – Chinese plum
P. nipponica – Japanese alpine cherry
P. padus – bird cherry
P. persica – peach
P. pseudocerasus – Chinese sour cherry
P. prostrata – mountain cherry
P. salicina – Japanese plum
P. sargentii – north Japanese hill cherry
P. scoparia – mountain almond
P. serrula – Tibetan cherry
P. serrulata – Japanese cherry
P. sibirica – Siberian apricot
P. simonii – apricot plum
P. speciosa – Oshima cherry
P. spinosa – blackthorn, sloe
P. ssiori – Hokkaido bird cherry
P. subhirtella – winter flowering cherry
P. tenella – dwarf Russian almond
P. tomentosa – Nanking cherry
P. triloba – flowering plum
P. turneriana – almondbark
P. ursina – Bear's plum
P. × yedoensis – Yoshino cherry
P. zippeliana – big leaf cherry (Chinese: 大叶桂樱)

P. alabamensis – Alabama cherry
P. alleghaniensis – Allegheny plum
P. americana – American plum
P. andersonii – desert peach
P. angustifolia – Chickasaw plum
P. brasiliensis
P. buxifolia
P. caroliniana – Carolina laurelcherry
P. cortapico
P. emarginata – bitter cherry
P. eremophila – Mojave Desert plum
P. fasciculata – wild almond
P. fremontii – desert apricot
P. geniculata – scrub plum
P. gentryi
P. gracilis – Oklahoma plum
P. havardii – Havard's plum
P. hortulana – Hortulan plum
P. huantensis
P. ilicifolia – hollyleaf cherry
P. integrifolia
P. maritima – beach plum
P. mexicana – Mexican plum
P. minutiflora – Texas almond
P. murrayana – Murray's plum
P. myrtifolia – West Indies cherry
P. nigra – Canada plum
P. occidentalis – western cherry laurel
P. pensylvanica – pin cherry
P. pleuradenia – Antilles cherry
P. pumila – sand cherry
P. rigida
P. rivularis – creek plum
P. serotina – black cherry
P. subcordata – Klamath plum
P. subcorymbosa
P. texana – peachbush
P. umbellata – flatwoods plum
P. virginiana – chokecherry

The genus Prunus includes the almond, the nectarine and peach, several species of apricots, cherries, and plums, all of which have cultivars developed for commercial fruit and nut production. The almond is not a true nut; the edible part is the seed. Other species are occasionally cultivated or used for their seed and fruit. A number of species, hybrids, and cultivars are grown as ornamental plants, usually for their profusion of flowers, sometimes for ornamental foliage and shape, and occasionally for their bark. Because of their considerable value as both food and ornamental plants, many Prunus species have been introduced to parts of the world to which they are not native, some becoming naturalised. The Tree of 40 Fruit has 40 varieties grafted on to one rootstock. Species such as blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), are grown for hedging, game cover, and other utilitarian purposes. The wood of some species (notably black cherry) is prized as a furniture and cabinetry timber, especially in North America. Many species produce an aromatic gum from wounds in the trunk; this is sometimes used medicinally. Other minor uses include dye production. Pygeum, a herbal remedy containing extracts from the bark of Prunus africana, is used as to alleviate some of the discomfort caused by inflammation in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia. Prunus species are food plants for the larvae of many Lepidoptera species (butterflies and moths). Prunus species are included in the Tasmanian Fire Service's list of low flammability plants, indicating that it is suitable for growing within a building protection zone.

Ornamentals include the group that may be collectively called "flowering cherries" (including sakura, the Japanese flowering cherries).

Many species are cyanogenic; that is, they contain compounds called cyanogenic glucosides, notably amygdalin, which, on hydrolysis, yield hydrogen cyanide. Although the fruits of some may be edible by humans and livestock (in addition to the ubiquitous fructivore of birds), seeds, leaves and other parts may be toxic, some highly so. The plants contain no more than trace amounts of hydrogen cyanide, but on decomposition after crushing and exposure to air or on digestion, poisonous amounts may be generated. The trace amounts may give a characteristic taste ("bitter almond") with increasing bitterness in larger quantities, less tolerable to people than to birds, which habitually feed on specific fruits.

People are often encouraged to consume many fruits because they are rich in a variety of nutrients and phytochemicals that are supposedly beneficial to human health. The fruits of Prunus often contain many phytochemicals and antioxidants. These compounds have properties that have been linked to preventing different diseases and disorders. Research suggests that the consumption of these fruits reduces the risk of developing diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and other age related declines. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) include superoxide radicals, hydrogen peroxide, hydroxyl radicals, and singlet oxygen; they are the byproducts of metabolism. High levels of ROS lead to oxidative stress, which causes damage to lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. The oxidative damage results in cell death, which ultimately leads to numerous diseases and disorders. Antioxidants act as a defense mechanism against the oxidative stress. As stated before, high levels of free radicals are harmful, thus having the capacity to absorb those radicals is greatly beneficial. The bioactive compounds, polyphenols and anthocyanins, found in berries and cherries are also present in almonds. Moreover, these fruits are quite rich in phenolic substances, including catechin, epicatechin, p coumaric acid, caffeic acid, and ferulic acid.

Similar to the plum, peaches and nectarines also have higher TAC in the skin than in the flesh. so plum trees should not be grown in the vicinity of hop fields. Corking is the drying or withering of fruit tissue. In stone fruit, it is often caused by a lack of boron and/or calcium. Gummosis is a nonspecific condition of stone fruits (peach, nectarine, plum, and cherry) in which gum is exuded and deposited on the bark of trees. Gum is produced in response to any type of wound – insect, mechanical injury, or disease. Apiosporina morbosa is a major fungal disease in the Northern Americas, with many urban centres running black knot fungus management programs. This disease is best managed by physical removal of knot bearing branches to prevent spore spread and immediate disposal of infected tissue.

The earliest known fossil Prunus specimens are wood, drupe, seed, and a leaf from the middle Eocene of the Princeton Chert of British Columbia, Canada. Using the known age as calibration data, a partial phylogeny of some of the Rosaceae from a number of nucleotide sequences was reconstructed. Prunus and its sister clade Maloideae (apple subfamily) has been suggested to have diverged which is within the Lutetian, or older middle Eocene. Stockey and Wehr report: "The Eocene was a time of rapid evolution and diversification in Angiosperm families such as the Rosaceae "

The Princeton finds are among a large number of angiosperm fossils from the Okanagan Highlands dating to the late early and middle Eocene. Crataegus is found at three locations: the McAbee Fossil Beds, British Columbia; the Klondike Mountain Formation around Republic, Washington, and the Allenby Formation around Princeton, British Columbia, while Prunus is found at those locations plus the Coldwater Beds of Quilchena, British Columbia and Chu Chua Formation around Chu Chua, British Columbia. A review of research on the Eocene Okanagan Highlands reported that the Rosaceae were more diverse at higher altitudes. The Okanagan highlands formations date to as early as 52 mya, but the 44.3 mya date, which is approximate, depending on assumptions, might still apply. The authors state: " the McAbee flora records a diverse early middle Eocene angiosperm dominated forest." and prune from Latin prūnum, the plum fruit. The tree is prūnus; and Pliny uses prūnus silvestris to mean the blackthorn. The word is not native Latin, but is a loan from Greek προῦνον (prounon), which is a variant of προῦμνον (proumnon), origin unknown. The tree is προύμνη (proumnē). Most dictionaries follow Hoffman, Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Griechischen, in making some form of the word a loan from a pre Greek language of Asia Minor, related to Phrygian. The first use of Prunus as a genus name was by Carl Linnaeus in Hortus Cliffortianus of 1737, which went on to become Species Plantarum. In the latter, Linnaeus attributes the word to "Varr. ", who it is assumed must be Marcus Terentius Varro.