Haumaniastrum villosum
A very soft African perennial herb that plays only as a native buffer, leaning on self-heal moves and a late-arriving survival trait.
Haumaniastrum villosum is a perennial herb in the mint family. It is native to Africa and holds no invasive range, so it only plays the native buffer role — there is no attacker version of it anywhere.
The starter, Herbal Draught, unlocks at Lv 1 for 2 Sun, hitting for 29 while healing 12%. The free once-per-battle ability, Stabilization, unlocks at Lv 25 and pins the foe in place so it stalls and cannot retreat. The advanced attack, Herbaceous Assault, arrives at Lv 40 for 6 Sun, dealing 31 and wilting the foe. No move carries the initiative rider. See moves.
It keeps two always-on traits. Bitter Principle arrives on the Lv 10 riser: any attacker that lands a damaging hit on it is Withered, taking a stacking -ATK debuff of two stacks per hit. At Lv 68 it gains Resprout, the survival trait: about 60% of the time, a blow that would kill it instead leaves it clinging at roughly a quarter of its HP. Because it only triggers around 60% of the time, treat it as a frequent bonus, not a guarantee.
It holds no thorns, Toxin or Unpalatable contact-recoil trait, so it is safe to attack. It is not a climber, so no Moss Pole. Its DEF is the lowest in this group, so a Calcium/Magnesium field gear amendment does the most for it.
At Lv 40 it carries 103 HP (with the +15% native cushion) but a DEF of just 1 — almost no armor at all. Its sustained tempo 39 is actually above its opening tempo 34, so it is a slow starter that picks up pace from turn 2 onward. The starter costs 2 Sun, the advanced 6, and retreat costs 11 Sun. As a common species its bench overshield bar is only a sliver. See stats.
HP grows to 190 and ATK to 42, but DEF barely leaves its band, reaching only 2 — it is a soft body its whole life. Retreat rises to 21 Sun and the inverted tempo sinks to its ~1% floor. Resprout is what a mature copy leans on, giving it a coin-flip-plus chance to walk off a lethal hit. From Lv 52 it regenerates Sun in battle; at Lv 85 the starter is free.
As a perennial herb it is a Competitor: ×1.5 into Ruderal cards, ×0.667 into Specialists (who hit it for ×1.5), even against other Competitors and the Weird group.
This is a fragile card that survives on healing and stalling rather than trading blows — the self-heal starter, the lock-down ability and the late Resprout all buy time, but its thin armor and modest ATK mean it will lose a straight damage race. Use it as a stalling support with a stronger attacker behind it. It is inedible, so fertilizer banks ×1.25 XP, never coins. As a native its power curve overtakes its tempo curve around Lv 25.
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.