Aquilegia canadensis
A native-only woodland herb that opens with poison and heals through long fights, played only as a bench buffer.
Red columbine is a low Perennial herb that fights as a self-healing skirmisher with a poison opener. It is native to Eastern and Western North America and has no invasive form, so the arena only ever plays it as a native buffer for your bench - there is no attacker version. It is a modest, honest card: a reliable healer, not a heavy hitter.
Its starter attack, Taproot Anchor, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 30 damage and leaving poison on the target (see statuses). The free once-per-battle ability, Allelochemical Priming, comes in at level 25: Primes root chemistry — Poison the foe. The advanced attack, Taproot Canal, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (about 27 damage) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your columbines sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn. See Moves.
Columbine keeps a single always-on trait: Resprout. Because it draws only one eligible trait, Resprout arrives at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 one. When it fires it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter health, but it triggers only about 60% of the time - a coin-flip reprieve, not a guarantee. See Abilities.
Columbine carries no special trait keywords - no thorns, no toxin trait, no spore chemistry - so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. It is non-toxic, showing no hazard ring. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native it only ever plays defense, so defensive field gear - a Cloche, a small DEF amendment - best supports its stalling, poison-and-heal game.
At level 40 columbine reads 103 HP with ATK of 26. Because there is no invasive card, it never gains trait-sourced ATK; what you see is what it hits for. DEF is just 4, low in the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with little armor. Its tempo is a slow starter and faster cruiser: turn 1 runs on its initiative (32), where it is out-paced, and every turn after on its SPD (34), where it grinds on. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active - and it never pays the invasive attacker's Faustian self-damage or extra prizes. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, columbine reaches 190 HP and 47 ATK, but its DEF only climbs to 8 - as a soft herb it banks bulk in health, almost none in armor, so it stays fragile against any real hitter. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature columbine acts last against almost anything young. See Stats.
As a perennial herb, columbine is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for x1.5 and is struck for only x0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), 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.
Play columbine as a native buffer that chips with poison and heals itself while a stronger ally does the real damage. Its value is durability and disruption, not offense, so keep it on the bench for the HP overshield or bring it out to stall. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks x1.25 XP rather than coins - grow it for levels, not income. It opens a step slow and leans on its healing and bulk as it climbs, crossing over around level 22; higher levels always help, 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.