Chionanthus virginicus
A native-only shrub that plays as a defensive support with strong bench disruption and a fast opening turn.
White fringetree is a Shrub that plays as a defensive support with strong bench disruption. In the current regions it is native to eastern North America and invasive nowhere, so it is a native-only card: a buffer, with no attacker role to describe.
The starter, Tick Tumble, unlocks at Lv 1 for 2 Sun and deals 29: Shakes the tick load loose onto the foe. The free ability, Frugivore Pact, unlocks at Lv 25: Trades fruit for carriage: +3 ATK, and the foe's whole bench sickens. It is a lasting ATK boost that also sickens the foe's whole bench. The advanced attack, Hedgerow Havoc, unlocks at Lv 40 for 6 Sun, deals 26 and reaches the bench: The whole hedgerow comes down on the bench. As a native-only card these read at native power. Neither attack carries an initiative rider.
Extrafloral Nectaries arrives at Lv 10 and is a retaliation trait: nectar recruits ant bodyguards, so whenever the card is struck it chips the attacker for a small fraction of their HP. Lignotuber stacks on at Lv 68 and is a specialist defence: fire releases this plant rather than harming it, so a Burn status is refused outright and instead heals the card — against a Burn-based foe that turns a threat into recovery. Early on it plays as the retaliator; the fire-immunity layer is an endgame addition. Both are working traits.
It holds no toxicity trait and no thorns trait. As a shrub it is not a Moss Pole climber. For field gear it wants defensive and support gear that plays to its buffer role; there is no invasive attacker build. While benched, this native projects an HP overshield bar onto your active. See /wiki/abilities.
At Lv 40: HP 121 with the +15% native cushion, DEF 13 (mid-tier shrub armor), and a modest ATK of 23. Its tempo split is the notable thing: opening tempo (Initiative) is 51 but sustained tempo (SPD) is only 13, so it is a strong first-turn mover that then cruises very slowly — it reliably lands the opening hit and is out-paced afterward. Retreat is a steep 19 Sun. See /wiki/stats.
By Lv 100 HP reaches 233 and ATK 43, while DEF firms to 28 — shrub-tier, past a weed but short of a tree wall. Retreat rises to 41 Sun and its already-low cruising tempo bottoms out near 1% of cap, so after turn one it will almost always move last. It matures into a durable support card that opens fast and then soaks.
Shrub sits in the Competitor group: strong at x1.5 into Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), weak at x0.667 to Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), and even against other Competitors and Weird cards. See /wiki/weaknesses-resistances.
Play it as a support wall and bench-disruptor. Frugivore Pact sickens the enemy's entire bench and buffs your own ATK, and Hedgerow Havoc reaches the back row, so it is good at wearing down a full enemy team rather than dueling one active. It has no invasive side and a low ATK, so it is a defensive and utility piece and a family-tree collection card, not a coin-farming attacker. It is not edible, so any fertilizer banks x1.25 XP toward growth rather than coins. Its shrub bulk makes it power-favored fairly early; the crossover is Lv 16.
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.