Share

Words

horse chestnut noun - a deciduous tree with large leaves of five leaflets, conspicuous sticky winter buds, and upright conical clusters of white, pink, or red flowers

The link will open in a new tab.

Sources

Typically plants that produce fruit in the form of mast like oaks, beeches, and pines reproduce by nuts. These nuts can be acorns, pinecones, and many more. One pine can produce from 100 to around 300 pinecones in a normal year. But there are certain periods when this number can reach the thousands. This phenomenon is called masting. But why and how this is happening?

When masting occurs all trees from the same species in a specific geographical area take part in it. Trees cannot communicate over long distances so we are not sure how exactly they coordinate each other. It is believed that by observing climate they can predict which year is good for mass reproduction.

According to the theory of predator satiation, trees can ensure their species’ survival using this tactic. If every year one tree produces the same amount of nuts the populations of rodents like squirrels and mice will increase just enough to eat all of them. But eaten nuts do not become trees. So we think trees keep their energy for one perfect year when they all rush to reproduce. The population of squirrels, mice, and other rodents is too low, and this way they can eat a minimal amount of nuts. 

In the following years after masting increased populations of rodents have been observed but with time they decrease due to the lack of food. One masting year can do some harm to the local people populations living near the masting trees. After it, invasions of mice in nearby fields and rural areas have been recorded. 

In the past, in such rich years, pannage was practiced. This was a great reward for someone given by a monarch or a nobleman. Certain people were allowed to let their pigs eat fallen acorns, beechnuts, and horse-chestnuts on the forest floor.  

The science thanks to which we know so much about masting is called Phenology. Its role is to find connections between certain behavior in plants and climate.

When trees start mass-production.