Cornus kousa
A woody shrub that trades as a middling all-rounder and plays either arena role - an East Asian native or a North American invader.
Chinese dogwood is a woody Shrub that trades as a middling all-rounder: cheap hits and a mid-fight heal, but no standout mechanic. It is native to East Asia and South Asia and invasive across Eastern North America and Oceania, so the arena can field it either way - as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker. It is an honest, unremarkable card that leans on its economy more than on any single trick in battle. See nativity for how the two sides differ.
Its starter attack, Snarl, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 28 damage as a native and 29 as an invasive - a plain strike with no rider. The free once-per-battle ability, Bramble Barrier, arrives at level 25: A wall of thorns β the foe withers against it. The advanced attack, Fruit Drop Kick, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (25 native / 27 invasive) and can pin the target in place. Most of your dogwoods 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.
Chinese dogwood carries a trait on both risers. Sclerophylly (level 10) takes a flat 3 off each direct hit, which quietly adds up against fast, low-power attackers. Lignotuber (level 68) makes it Burn-proof, and turns an incoming Burn into a heal. See Abilities.
It carries no trait keywords - no thorns, no toxin, no spore chemistry - so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. It is non-toxic, with no contact recoil, no hazard ring, and no poison on its strikes. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, general defensive field gear suits its supporting game; as an invasive, offensive gear makes its extra ATK count.
At level 40 it reads 121 HP native / 106 invasive, with ATK of 20 native versus 24 invasive - the invasive edge is real but modest. DEF is 11, mid-range for the shrub band, so it soaks hits better than a herb but is no wall. Its tempo is front-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (36) and every turn after on its SPD (33), so it leads off the mark but is out-paced in a long fight. Retreat costs 14 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active; as an invasive it pays self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, dogwood reaches 233 HP native / 203 invasive and 36 / 44 ATK, with DEF climbing to 23 - a real shrub cushion, though short of a tree's wall. Retreat rises to 28 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature dogwood acts late against almost anything young. Leveling buys durability and damage at the cost of speed.
As a shrub, Chinese dogwood is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for x1.5 and takes only x0.667 from 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 it as a cheap, self-mending mid-liner. As a native it is a passable buffer, shielding a fragile hitter with its HP overshield; as an invasive its damage is only middling, so it supports better than it finishes. Its steadiest value is economic: it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks x1.25 XP toward faster leveling rather than coins. In the arena's player-versus-player (PvP) matches it fights as a quick opener until about level 19 (around level 22 as an invasive), after which its bulk carries it - there is never a reason to hold it back.
Leveling trades speed for power. A plantβs 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 β native adds a HP cushion, invasive an attack edge, neutral neither β with the card at its crossover and fully grown at LvΒ 100.