mast seeding

mast seeding, the production of many seeds by a plant every two or more years in regional synchrony with other plants of the same species. Since seed predators commonly scour the ground for each year’s seed crop, they often consume most of the seeds produced by many different plant species each year. Mast seeding is an effective defense because the seed predators become satiated before all the seeds have been consumed. The consequence of mast seeding for the organization of a plant community is that, instead of a few new seedlings establishing themselves every year, major pulses occur over time, during which new plants become established and old plants die. Many conifers in boreal forests exhibit mast seeding, as do other species, such as bamboos. Some bamboo species grow for 100 years or more before producing seeds. Then all at once the bamboo plants over a large geographic region will set seed and die in the same year.