when i was ten, i wrote a school assignment about the tendency of some (many?) flowers and plants with stems to lean slightly, and then slowly rotate throughout the day. it’s a behavior that seems intended to maximize photosynthesis potential. i asked my mother what was an interesting thing that happened in nature. “heliotropism”, she answered, and sent me off to look it up.
“intended” is a funny word to use here. if i recall, my research (ha) indicated that the cells in the stem of the plant produce a substance which induces the shaded cells to elongate, relative to the ones on the sunny side. the sun-favoring tilt action, adaptive to the day’s progress, is simply mechanical. of course, nothing in my first nine years suggested any essentialist view of “free will”. so, even now, i have to laugh at the idea that your local spring buds don’t have intentions.
of course they do.