Hamamelis virginiana
A native-only broadleaf tree that heals a benched ally and, once mature, shields your active with a Sun overshield.
American witch-hazel is a woody Broadleaf tree that fights as a supportive native wall: it opens quickly, tanks with real armor, and looks after your bench. It is native to eastern North America and has no invasive form, so it only ever plays the native buffer role; there is no attacker scenario for it. It is a genuinely useful support card, better prized for what it does for its teammates than for its own damage. See nativity.
Its starter attack, Leaf Smother, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 27 damage; besides hitting the active it also chips the enemy bench. The free once-per-battle ability, Gap Capture, unlocks at level 25: Takes the fallen giant's light: +5 ATK, kept for the match. The advanced attack, Leaf Me Tree, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (33 damage) and saps the target, wearing it down as it strikes. Most of your witch-hazels sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See moves.
Witch-hazel keeps two always-on traits. Mycorrhiza arrives on the level 10 riser and heals a benched ally, but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so treat the mend as occasional rather than dependable. Network arrives on the level 68 riser and, as a canopy tree, projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active from the bench. Neither is dropped once earned. See abilities.
Witch-hazel carries no special trait keywords, and it is non-toxic: nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it, and it lays no poison. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native support tree, defensive field gear such as a Cloche or a Ca/Mg amendment suits it, since its job is to stay standing and keep the bench alive.
At level 40 witch-hazel reads 121 HP and 26 ATK. DEF is 24, solidly in the broadleaf-tree band, so it takes hits far better than a soft herb. Its tempo is front-loaded: turn 1 runs on a healthy initiative (47), but every turn after runs on a much lower SPD (17), so it leads the opening exchange and is out-paced in a long fight. Retreat costs 14 Sun. It only appears as a native, so it always carries the +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects its overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, witch-hazel climbs to 233 HP and 46 ATK, and as a tree its DEF rises to 56, turning it into an armored wall that shrugs off ordinary blows. Retreat rises to 29 Sun as it becomes more rooted, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature witch-hazel is slow and acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys durability and the bench overshield at the cost of ever moving first again.
As a broadleaf tree, witch-hazel is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for x1.5 and is hit for only x0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike 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 witch-hazel as a native anchor: park it up front to soak damage while its armor holds, and keep it benched late so its Network overshield and occasional heal support a fragile finisher. Its own damage is modest, so it is a supporting piece, not a closer, but a reliable one. On the economy it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks x1.25 XP rather than coins, making it a steady grower rather than a coin engine. It opens as a quick skirmisher and hands the fight over to its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 14; higher levels only make it tougher, 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.