Masting and seed fate data of Castanopsis fargesii

Masting is a common reproductive strategy regulating seedling regeneration in many perennial plant species. The evolutionary origins and functional benefits of masting have been explained by well-supported hypotheses relating to economies of scale of seed production. Nevertheless, our understanding of the potential costs of masting for the plant seed-to-seedling transitions remains limited.

We evaluated the annual seed production of Castanopsis fargesii, a dominant species of subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests in China from 2013 to 2018. We also tracked the seed fate for the mature seeds in the seed-to-seedling transition. Each type of killed seed (such as predated by rodents and insects, or germinated failure) were evaluated. We measured the seed mass of all intact seeds using a precision electronic balance. This dataset contains the masting data, seed fate data and seed mass data of C. fargesii for more than six years.