Acer sterculiaceum
A slow, supportive canopy tree that heals the bench and hardens into a wall, fielded only as a native buffer.
Himalayan maple is a Broadleaf tree that fights as a slow, supportive canopy tree: modest damage, real bark armor, and healing that flows to the bench. It is native to East Asia and South Asia and has no invasive form, so the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer for your team — there is no attacker version to build. It is a supporting card rather than a finisher, most useful standing behind a harder hitter.
Its starter attack, Deathshadow, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun for about 25 damage; it splashes a little onto the opposing bench as well as the active target. The free once-per-battle ability, Gap Capture, arrives at level 25: Takes the fallen giant's light: +5 ATK, kept for the match. The advanced attack, Root Heave, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (20 damage) and saps the target, draining it as it strikes. Most of your maples sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. See Moves for how the slots open up.
Himalayan maple keeps two always-on traits, one per riser. Mycorrhiza arrives on the level 10 riser and heals a benched ally, but it only fires about 60% of the time, so treat the mend as likely rather than guaranteed. Network arrives on the level 68 riser: as a canopy tree it projects a gold Sun overshield bar from the bench onto whichever plant is active. Together they make it a genuine bench support once mature. See Abilities.
It carries no special trait keywords — no thorns, no toxin, no spore chemistry — and it is non-toxic, so an attacker takes no contact recoil or poison for hitting it. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear suits its slow game: a Cloche for staying power, or a calcium/magnesium amendment for a little extra DEF.
At level 40 it reads 140 HP and 20 ATK — a low attack that confirms its supporting role. DEF is 23, solid for the broadleaf-tree band and enough real armor to shrug off small hits. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (15) and every turn after on its SPD (17), so it is out-paced off the mark but relentless in a long fight. Retreat costs 18 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active plant. Link Stats.
Matured to level 100, the maple climbs toward an armored wall: 276 HP and 36 ATK, with DEF reaching 52 — as a tree it turns late growth into armor, not just health, so it becomes genuinely hard to move. Retreat rises to 38 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature maple almost always acts last. Maturing buys durability and bench support at the cost of ever being fast.
As a broadleaf tree it sits in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them, but it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play Himalayan maple as a back-line buffer and wall: park it on the bench to feed the Sun overshield and mycorrhiza heals to a fragile hitter, or bring it forward to soak damage once it has real HP and DEF. It is honestly a support piece — its own offense is weak — so it earns its slot through durability and bench value, not kills. Economically it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins, making it a steady leveler. It plays as a slow skirmisher early and leans harder on its bulk as it grows, crossing over around level 1 — always stronger the higher you take it, so there is no reason to hold it back.
Leveling trades speed for power. A plant’s tempo (SPD + INI, the turn-order edge) fades as it grows, while its power (HP + ATK + DEF, net of the rising Sun cost to retreat) climbs. The crossover is the level where power overtakes tempo: below it the plant is a fast skirmisher, above it a heavyweight. Shown for each stance this plant can actually hold — native adds a HP cushion, invasive an attack edge, neutral neither — with the card at its crossover and fully grown at Lv 100.