Alangium platanifolium
A mid-armor shrub that taxes anything striking it and shrugs off fire entirely — a passable Competitor buffer.
Planeleaf Alangium is a Shrub that fights as a middling, moderately armored card. It is native to East Asia and invasive in Europe, so the arena can cast it either way — a native buffer for your bench or an invasive attacker. It is a passable but unspectacular card, though it does tax every attacker on contact and becomes Burn-proof at level 68.
Its starter attack, Drupe Drop, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun for about 25 damage native / 25 invasive as a plain hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Arrested Succession, arrives at level 25: Stops the forest before it starts — the foe stalls and can't heal. The advanced attack, Briar Cage, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (20 native / 20 invasive), sapping the target as it lands. Most of your Alangiums sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn.
Planeleaf alangium runs a trait on both risers. Extrafloral Nectaries (level 10) takes 3% of the attacker's own max HP on every hit, ignoring DEF and the overshield. Lignotuber (level 68) means fire is no threat: Burn cannot land, and the attempt heals the plant. See Abilities.
It carries no trait keywords and is non-toxic, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it: no contact recoil and no poison rider. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native buffer, defensive field gear suits its wall lean; as an invasive, offensive gear helps its modest attack.
At level 40 Planeleaf Alangium reads 121 HP native / 106 invasive, with ATK of 20 native versus 20 invasive — a small invasive edge. DEF is 12, mid-range in the shrub band, so it takes hits better than the soft cards though it is no tree. Its tempo is a slow start into a faster cruise: turn 1 on its initiative (33), every turn after on its SPD (35), so it is out-paced early but relentless as a fight drags on. Retreat costs 14 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench overshield; as an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, it firms into a moderate wall: 233 HP native / 203 invasive, 36 / 36 ATK, and DEF rising to 24 — as a shrub it earns some armor, short of a tree but well above the soft cards. Retreat rises to 29 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature plant acts last against most young cards. Maturing buys real durability; the cost is that slow clock.
As a shrub, Planeleaf Alangium is in the Competitor succession group. It strikes Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, bulbs) for x1.5 and takes only x0.667 from them, but it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns), which hit it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
As a native, play it as a reasonably tough buffer whose HP cushion and overshield support a stronger hitter. As an invasive it is a slow, moderate attacker with a useful wither on the advanced move, better as a grinder than a finisher. It never really spikes, so keep expectations modest — its traits are steady value rather than a swing. Its value is also economic — it is inedible, so any nutrient banks x1.25 XP toward leveling. It fights as a slow skirmisher until about level 19 as a native (about 22 as an invasive), then its bulk takes over; there is no reason to hold it back from leveling.
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.