Fothergilla gardenii
A supportive native broadleaf tree that heals the bench and shields the front line - a defender, never an attacker.
Coastal witch-alder is a small Broadleaf tree built entirely for support: bench splashes, healing, and a late Sun overshield. It is native to Eastern North America and has no invasive form, so it always plays the native side - a buffer for your bench, never an attacker. On its own it is a low-damage card; its worth is what it does for the plants around it. See nativity.
Its starter attack, Deathshadow, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 24 damage while splashing onto the bench. The free once-per-battle ability, Stand Replacement, arrives at level 25: A fire that takes the whole stand — the foe burns, and so do its neighbours. The advanced attack, Deadfall, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (40 damage) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your witch-alders sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. No move carries an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn. See Moves.
Witch-alder keeps two always-on traits. Mycorrhiza arrives at level 10 and heals a benched ally, but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so the mend is a likely bonus rather than a guarantee. At level 68 it gains Network, a canopy-tree trait that from the bench projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto whichever plant is active. Both traits point the same way: keeping the rest of your team alive. See Abilities.
It carries no trait keywords and is non-toxic - no contact recoil, no hazard ring, no poison on its strikes. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. Since it only ever plays the native side, defensive field gear that reinforces its role as a bench protector suits it best.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP and 17 ATK; there is no invasive card, so it always plays the native side. DEF is 24, solid tree-tier armor, so it is genuinely hard to knock down. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on its initiative (37) and every turn after on its SPD (37), the same value, so it is neither a fast opener nor a fast cruiser. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, witch-alder climbs toward an armored wall: 190 HP, 30 ATK, and DEF reaching 55. Retreat rises to 23 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it acts late but is very hard to remove - exactly what you want from a plant whose job is to keep the bench standing. Leveling buys durability, not offense.
As a broadleaf tree, coastal witch-alder 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 dedicated bench support: a tough tree that heals allies, splashes the bench, and shields the active with its overshield. Its damage is low, so pair it with a real hitter and let it soak while your attacker does the work. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks x1.25 XP toward faster leveling rather than coins. In player-versus-player (PvP) matches it never wins on its own numbers, but its wall and healing make a fragile team much harder to break, and it only grows sturdier with levels.
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.