Cyperus alternifolius
Umbrella sedge (Cyperus alternifolius) is a grass that plays as a native buffer or invasive attacker in Supplant.
Umbrella sedge (Cyperus alternifolius, Cyperaceae) is a grass in Supplant's battle system. It is native to Africa — where it plays as a defensive buffer — and invasive in East Asia, Europe, eastern North America, western North America, Oceania, South America and South Asia, where it turns attacker. As a soft-bodied grass it leans on its moves and traits rather than a heavy guard.
Runner (starter, unlocks at Lv 1, 2 Sun) — Sends out runners that pin the foe. It hits for about 32 native / 36 invasive.
Rhizosphere Reign (ability, Lv 25, free once per battle) — Owns the root zone — the foe's whole bench sickens and withers. An ability deals no damage; it is pure utility.
Silica Slice (advanced attack, Lv 40, 6 Sun) — Silica-edged blades cut and draw. It hits for about 38 native / 42 invasive.
The numbers above are read at Lv 40, the level its whole kit is unlocked; a card you catch far below that has only the moves whose levels it has reached.
This card keeps two always-on traits, drawn from its category pool and locked in for good — the rest of the pool was dropped. They arrive on the level risers, one at a time, so for most of a card's life it is playing with just the first.
From Lv 10: Silica phytoliths — abrasive silica bodies that chip any attacker on contact.
From Lv 68: Tussock crown — a dense crown that gives the card its own extra HP bar to spend before its base health.
Read these off the card's own trait schedule; the category pool lists more, but this plant carries only these two. Learn more at Abilities.
No Moss Pole here — that fits only climbers (vines and epiphytes), and this is a grass. With little DEF of its own, a Calcium/Magnesium amendment is worth more here than on a wall — every flat point counts on a soft card. A Cloche helps against Poison-heavy foes. See Field gear for the full kit.
At Lv 40 this card reads 103 HP native versus 89 invasive, and 25 ATK native versus 37 invasive — the invasive edge is deferred onto the caps, so the gap widens as it grows. DEF is 2 and retreat costs 16 Sun regardless of nativity.
Its sustained tempo (34) sits above its opening tempo (32): it is a slow starter that cruises — it may cede the first hit but leads the tempo from turn 2 onward. It rewards patience over an opening burst. Both tempo stats fall as the card levels.
Benched as a native, it projects an HP overshield bar onto your active, sized by its rarity. As an invasive attacker its aggression is trait-sourced, not a flat multiplier, and it pays "Faustian" self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack (growing with level) and concedes 2 prizes on knockout.
See Stats and the overshield for how these bars work.
By Lv 100 HP swells to 190 and ATK to 45, but DEF barely leaves its soft band at 3 — biomass grows, armor does not. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and the inverted tempo has sunk to about its 1% floor, so whatever opening edge it had as a seedling is gone. It matures into a bigger, slower body that still takes hits like the soft card it is.
Roughly USDA zone 8a — it should come through winters that bottom out near -10 °C. Colder than that and it wants shelter, a wall, or a winter indoors. Its measured climate envelope runs from a cold edge near 9.6 °C to a warm edge near 28.1 °C — a Tropical · wide-ranging band. Treat the zone as a rough guide rather than a promise: it comes from a regression whose error runs a little over one full zone, which is why the reading says "roughly."
On a card you will see one of four climate chips, read for wherever you are standing (so it shifts as you travel). Thrives here means your winter low and summer heat both sit inside its range, and it earns x2 battle XP. In range means it survives but sits near an edge, for x1.25 XP. Colder than its range or Hotter than its range means your winters or summers run past what it tolerates, for no bonus — and "colder than its range" is usually just a fact about the winter outside, not a verdict on the plant. Climate changes battle XP and nothing else: not damage, stats, growth speed or the economy.
As a grass it sits in the Ruderal succession group. It reclaims from the Specialists — succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes — hitting them for ×1.5 and resisting their blows, but the Competitors (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs and broadleaf trees) crowd it out, striking for ×1.5 while shrugging off what it returns. The off-wheel Weird categories are neutral both ways. See Succession & weaknesses.
Native, it is a soft support that leans on its overshield and traits rather than its guard; invasive, a fragile-but-hungry attacker that has to end fights before its low HP catches up with it.
Be honest about its ceiling: with floor-tier DEF it is not a card that carries a hard fight on its own. It is a fine single-player coin-earner and a family-tree collection piece, best fielded with a sturdier bench behind it.
It is not eaten in-game, so any fertilizer you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins.
One framing note: it fights as a fast skirmisher until about Lv 23, after which its rising bulk and attack take over from its falling tempo. That is about which edge dominates, not about being stronger young — a card is always stronger in raw HP, ATK and DEF at higher levels, so level it up. The Total power gallery below the article shows the crossover and the fully grown card.
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.