Although it has long been recognized that seed production by many forest trees varies greatly from year to year, masting (along with ‘mast fruiting’, ‘mast seeding’ and ‘masting behaviour’) as a concept referring to such variability is a relatively recent development. Here, I provide a brief history of masting research, highlighting some of the early contributions by foresters, zoologists and others that paved the way for the burgeoning number of studies currently being conducted by researchers around the world. Of particular current interest is work attempting to understand the proximate mechanisms, evolutionary drivers and community effects of this important ecological phenomenon as well as the ways that climate change may influence masting behaviour in the future.This article is part of the theme issue ‘The ecology and evolution of synchronized seed production in plants'.