Dahlia coccinea
A soft, fast bulb Ruderal that self-heals and buffs its own attack, native across the Americas and invasive in Africa and Europe.
The red dahlia is a Bulb that plays as a quick, soft-bodied attacker with a self-healing, self-buffing kit. Its nativity role runs both ways. It is native across eastern and western North America and South America, where it buffers your team, and it has naturalised as an invasive in Africa and Europe, where the same card plays as a harder attacker.
Its starter attack, Double Nose, is available from Lv 1 for 2 Sun (Two noses break ground and strike together.), dealing 46 native and 50 invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Geophyte Dormancy, unlocks at Lv 25: Retreats underground to mend: heal 45%. It deals no damage and costs no Sun, and a mid-battle heal on a fragile card is a real lifeline. The advanced attack, Bulb Moment, unlocks at Lv 40 for 6 Sun (Everything the bulb saved, spent now: +4 ATK, kept.), a kept ATK buff plus damage, reading 30 / 32. No move carries an initiative rider.
It keeps two always-on traits that arrive apart. Tunic Layers comes in at Lv 10, the protective bulb-coat working from early on. Perennating Reserve stacks on at Lv 68, the stored underground reserve arriving only late in the card's life. This card does not draw the bulb pool's Resprout or Duff Stuff, so it has neither a lethal-hit save nor a bench-DEF bonus. Neither of its two traits is a chance-based sustain heal.
The red dahlia carries no special trait keywords, and as a bulb it is not a climber, so it takes no Moss Pole. For field gear, its near-zero DEF means a calcium/magnesium amendment adds a lot proportionally, and healing gear stacks with its own self-mend.
At Lv 40 a native reads 103 HP to an invasive's 89, the native carrying the +15% cushion. ATK is 20 native versus 26 invasive, the step reflecting its introduced range rather than any flat multiplier. DEF is only 1, soft as expected for a bulb, so most hits land near full. Its edge is tempo: it opens at initiative 40 and, unusually, sustains even faster at SPD 47, so it is a brisk starter that keeps pressing turn after turn. Retreat is a cheap 12 Sun. A native on the bench projects a green HP overshield bar; an invasive pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes on a knockout.
By Lv 100 HP swells to 190 native and 165 invasive and ATK to 36 / 51, while DEF stays pinned at the floor, reaching only 1 — a soft bulb never armors up. Retreat edges to 24 Sun, and the tempo that made it quick when young has fallen near its floor. Maturing buys biomass and a bigger swing but no durability.
As a bulb it is in the Ruderal succession group. It hits Specialist plants (succulent, conifer, fern, epiphyte) for ×1.5 and resists them at ×0.667, but it loses to Competitors (perennial-herb, vine, shrub, broadleaf-tree).
Play the red dahlia as a fast racer: use its high tempo to get ahead, buff with Bulb Moment, and reset with the heal on Geophyte Dormancy to survive its own fragility. It is soft and wants bench backup rather than being asked to tank. It is edible with the root as its resolved part, so feeding it potassium — the fertilizer that matches a root crop — pays ×1.25 coins; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead, which makes it a decent coin earner in single-player battles. It fights as a fast skirmisher until about Lv 32 as a native and Lv 34 as an invasive, after which its growing HP and attack take over the speed edge.
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.