Mast (botany) Mast seeding is defined as the highly variable production of fruit by a population. These intermittent pulses of food resources drive ecosystem-level functions and forest dynamics. The difference between a mast seeding year and a non-mast seeding year can be thousands of acorns, hickory nuts, beech nuts, etc. Mast seeding dominantly occurs in wind-pollinated tree species, but has also been observed in grasses and Dipterocarps. Masting, in the strict sense of the term, occurs only in monocarpic (or semelparous) species, whose members reproduce only once during their lifetime, then die. Hypothesis for the evolution of mast seeding can broadly be
Mast Stepping this practice is that the insertion of coins in buildings and ships may have functioned as a form of sacrifice thanking the gods for a successful construction, or a request for divine protection in the future. Mast Stepping In sailboating and shipbuilding, Mast Stepping is the process of raising the boat's mast. It also refers to a ceremonial occasion which occurs when the mast is stepped, towards the end of a ship's construction. The ceremony involves placing or welding one or more coins into the mast step of a ship, and is seen as an important ceremonial occasion in a