Plant Marriage in Contemporary Biology: Epistemic, Evolutionary, and Cultural Perspectives

This review explores “plant marriage” as a historically influential but conceptually limited epistemic metaphor that has shaped our understanding of plant reproduction. While early botanical sciences used marital metaphors to explain plant sexuality, this study shows how modern plant biology has gradually moved beyond such anthropomorphic frameworks toward mechanistic and process-based explanations. The paper has two main objectives: to trace the historical and epistemic role of “plant marriage” and to assess its limitations in light of contemporary evolutionary biology. Out of 563 sources screened, 115 relevant studies were analyzed on floral courtship signals mediated by visual, chemical, and mechanical cues; synchronized flowering and mast seeding; deceptive reproductive strategies; phenotypic plasticity; and various plant “marital systems,” including monogamy, polyandry, exogamy, and non-exclusive reproductive unions. This review engages with contemporary philosophy of biology by discussing relational understandings of reproduction, teleology, and the epistemic role of metaphor in scientific explanation. Mechanisms such as self-incompatibility, selective pollen tube growth, cryptic female choice, maternal investment, fruit development, and selective abortion are examined as regulatory processes challenging reductive, mechanical models of fertilization and questioning the view of plants as passive reproductive agents. Alternative reproductive strategies like apomixis, vegetative propagation, and hybridization further challenge fixed assumptions about sexual reproduction, calling for pluralistic and process-oriented approaches. By integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge with experimental science, the study situates plant reproduction within relational epistemologies, emphasizing ecological interactions, phenological timing, and environmental constraints. Viewing plant marriage as a biologically rooted yet conceptually rich metaphor, this review argues that modern plant science employs agency-sensitive and relational models of explanation. The paper contributes to ongoing philosophical debates on metaphors, agency, and ontological commitments in biological practice, while proposing a non-anthropocentric, non-patriarchal vegetal ontology of reproduction relevant to ecological theory and conservation amid environmental change.