Aphananthe aspera
A native-only canopy tree built for the bench: a Sun overshield early, bench healing late, and armor at the top.
Mukutree is a Broadleaf tree that fights as a patient bench-support tree: light on damage, heavy on armor, and generous to the plants standing behind it. 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 — there is no attacker version. It is a supporting card, valuable for what it gives your team rather than for the fights it wins alone.
Its starter attack, Acorn Drop, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and lands a plain hit of about 25 damage. The free once-per-battle ability, Climax Community, arrives at level 25: The forest as it ends up: heal 70% and +5 ATK. The advanced attack, Barking Mad, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (36 damage) and mends the tree as it strikes, so it can trade and heal in the same turn. Most of your mukutrees sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. See Moves.
Mukutree keeps two always-on traits, one per riser. Network arrives on the level 10 riser: as a canopy tree it projects a gold Sun overshield bar from the bench onto your active plant. Mycorrhiza arrives on the level 68 riser and heals a benched ally, though it only fires about 60% of the time, so the mend is frequent rather than guaranteed. Both together make it a strong back-line anchor once mature. See Abilities.
It carries no special trait keywords and is non-toxic, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it — no recoil, no poison. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear suits its slow, protective game: a Cloche or a calcium/magnesium amendment to stack even more staying power on top of its natural armor.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP and 20 ATK — a low attack that keeps it firmly in the support role. DEF is 26, comfortably within the broadleaf-tree band, giving it real armor against ordinary hits. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (32) and every turn after on its SPD (34), so it is out-paced off the mark but relentless in a long fight. Retreat costs 16 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, Mukutree becomes an armored wall: 190 HP, 36 ATK, and DEF reaching 60 — as a tree it pours late growth into armor as much as health, so it is very hard to knock out. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature mukutree acts last against almost anything. Maturing buys a near-impassable bench anchor at the cost of all speed.
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 Mukutree as a bench anchor: keep it benched to project the Sun overshield and heal your active with mycorrhiza, or send it out to wall up once its HP and DEF are high. Its offense is weak, so it wins its slot through protection and durability, not damage. It is inedible, so any nutrient banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins — a reliable leveler. It plays as a slow skirmisher early and leans on its bulk as it grows, crossing over around level 19, always stronger at higher levels, so keep leveling it.
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.