Tropical cyclone winds and precipitation stimulate cone production in the masting species longleaf pine (Pinus palustris).

Many trees exhibit masting - where reproduction is temporally variable and synchronous over large areas. Several dominant masting species occur in tropical cyclone (TC)-prone regions, but it is unknown whether TCs correlate with mast seeding. We analyzed long-term data (1958-2022) to test the hypothesis that TCs influence cone production in longleaf pine (Pinus palustris).