Cichorium pumilum
A native-only annual forb that plays as a defensive buffer and collection piece.
A fast, fragile weed with an explosive double-hit opener and almost no armor. It is a annual forb in battle. It is native to Africa, East Asia and Europe and is recorded as invasive nowhere, so it only ever plays the native buffer role — there is no attacker scenario for this card.
The starter attack Yolo unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun: Throws everything at it — twice. It deals about 50 damage.
The free once-per-battle ability r-Selected Riot arrives at level 25: All-out reproduction: +8 ATK and speed, kept. It costs no Sun — its price is being usable only once per battle.
The advanced attack Choke Bloom opens at level 40 for 6 Sun: Crowds the foe out, sapping its strength. It hits for about 41.
Most cards you field sit well below level 40, so introduce these slots in order — a young plant has only its starter.
This card keeps two always-on traits, drawn from its category pool; the rest of that pool was dropped and it never gets it. Ephemeral Bolt (from level 10) grants +4 ATK while it is above half HP — it hits hardest early and fades as it is worn down.
A second, different trait stacks on later: Reseed (from level 68) drops a Seedling token when it is knocked out, sending a fresh seedling up in its place. So for most of its playable life — including at the level 40 snapshot the stats below are read at — this card runs its first trait alone, and only a fully levelled specimen holds both.
This card carries no special trait keywords, and as a annual forb it is not eligible for a Moss Pole (that is for climbers — vines and epiphytes). A Calcium/Magnesium soil amendment adds flat DEF, useful on a soft card like this. Playing native, lean into bench support that feeds the overshield it and its benched natives project. See field gear for the full list.
Read at level 40, it carries 103 HP, including the +15% native cushion, with DEF 1 and a retreat cost of 12 Sun. Its attack reads 25 ATK.
Its opening tempo (initiative, 39) and sustained tempo (SPD, 41) sit close together, so it holds one steady pace through a fight rather than swinging early or late.
As a native it and any benched natives project a bench overshield onto your active. It never holds the invasive role, so it pays no Faustian self-damage. See stats.
As an annual forb it stays a glass cannon. HP fills out to 190 native / 165 invasive and ATK to 46 / 50, but DEF barely leaves its floor at 1 — biomass without armor. Retreat rises to 23 Sun as it roots down with age, and its once-brisk tempo has sunk to near its floor — the tempo pips in Stats above are as fast as this card ever moves. Levelling buys raw bulk and reach; it costs turn-order speed.
In the succession type chart this annual forb is a Ruderal. Its attacks hit Specialist cards (succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes) for ×1.5, while Competitor cards (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs and broadleaf trees) hit it for ×1.5 and shrug its own blows down to ×0.667. Matchups against the off-wheel Weird categories (carrion-aroids, carnivorous plants, mycotrophs and vascular parasites) are neutral both ways. See weaknesses & resistances.
This is a native-only card: play it as a buffer and wall, soaking hits and feeding the bench overshield. It earns its keep in single-player battles for coins and as a family-tree collection piece more than as a top-tier attacker. It is edible with a resolved edible part, so feeding it Nitrogen pays ×1.25 coins; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead. As a soft, fast card it stays tempo-favored — leaning on speed — until roughly level 28, after which its bulk and attack take over; it is still monotonically stronger the more you level 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.