It was unfortunately worded, perhaps excusable as a metaphor in which “the plant” is the population. I agree that the sense of agency and/or purpose that the scientist is using is potentially confusing, but IMO it’s only confusing to people who don’t know anything about evolution or to those who… want to be confused. Maybe that scientist peppered her/his words with teleological excesses the whole time, but in general this kind of language when talking in brief to a lay audience shouldn’t be such a big deal.
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