Eleutherococcus sessiliflorus
A non-toxic East Asian shrub that plays as a native buffer: firm armor, dead foliage that plates it at low HP, and a bench heal when it finally falls.
Stalkless flower eleuthero is a Shrub that fights as a native buffer built on stats rather than tricks: firmer armor than the herbs in this set, but nothing special beyond raw numbers. It is native to East Asia and has no invasive form, so it only ever plays the buffer role — there is no attacker version to field. Its damage is middling and its edge is durability.
Its starter attack, Tick Tumble, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 28 damage — a plain hit with no rider. The free once-per-battle ability, Nurse Shrub, arrives at level 25: Shelters the whole bench — evens their health, and calls the fallen back. The advanced attack, Blackthorn Barrage, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (41 damage) and saps the target as it withers it. Most of your eleuthero sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Stalkless flower eleuthero runs a trait on each riser. Marcescence (level 10) gives +4 DEF while at or below half HP. Drupe Mast (level 68) pays the bench out on this card's knockout — 8% of max HP to each ally still standing. See Abilities.
Stalkless flower eleuthero is non-toxic: it carries no contact recoil and no poison rider on being struck, so nothing punishes an attacker for trading with it. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native it pairs well with defensive field gear — a Cloche or a calcium/magnesium amendment — to build on the armor it already has. See statuses.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP with ATK of 20 — a middling number that will not close games quickly. DEF is 11, firmer than the herbs in the shrub band, so it soaks hits noticeably better than the soft cards here. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 is outpaced on its initiative (29), but every turn after runs faster on its SPD (37), so it is a slow starter that grinds harder once a fight settles. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains an HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, it swells to 190 HP and 35 ATK, and its DEF climbs to 21 — firmer than a herb ever gets, though not a true tree-wall. Retreat rises to 23 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature shrub acts last against almost anything younger.
As a shrub, it sits in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors (perennial herbs, shrubs, trees, vines) and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play it as a durable native buffer: park it in front to soak hits and protect your active with the bench overshield — it plates up further once it is hurt, and heals the bench when it finally falls. It is a modest card — sturdier than the herbs but with no trick to swing a fight. On economy, it is edible with a resolved root, so feeding it Potassium pays ×1.25 coins while any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth. It plays as a slow, sturdy buffer that only grows tougher as it levels, crossing over around level 20 — but it is always stronger at higher levels, so there is no reason to hold it back.
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.