Heracleum mantegazzianum
A soft, toxic herb that heals as it strikes and burns attackers on contact — a European native or an eastern North American invader.
Giant hogweed is a towering Perennial herb that fights as a self-healing contact hazard: it mends itself while it strikes and Poisons anyone who hits it. It is native to Europe and invasive across Eastern North America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker. Its own damage is low, so it leans on healing and recoil rather than raw hitting.
Its starter attack, Crown Split, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 38 damage as a native and 46 as an invasive, as a straightforward hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Perennating Bud, comes in at level 25: Breaks a stored bud: heal 40%. It mends the plant. The advanced attack, Winterkill, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (24 native / 28 invasive) and heals the plant as it lands. Most of your hogweed sit well below level 40, where only the starter is available. No move carries an initiative rider.
Hogweed keeps a single always-on trait: Resprout. Because it draws only one eligible trait, Resprout arrives on the level 68 riser. When it works it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter of its health — but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve, not a guarantee. See Abilities.
Hogweed holds the Toxin trait at the toxic tier: striking it Poisons the attacker, and that recoil fires in player-versus-player (PvP) too. Sulfur soil does not neutralize it, though a Cloche-warded attacker absorbs it. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear leans into its heal-and-punish game; as an invasive, offensive gear props up its otherwise low damage.
At level 40 hogweed reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 16 native versus 29 invasive — a big jump from a low native ATK to a workable invasive one. DEF is 4, a step above the perennial-herb floor. Its tempo is a slow starter but a faster cruiser: turn 1 runs on its initiative (37) and every turn after on its SPD (48), so it is out-paced early and relentless later. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a benched HP overshield for your active; as an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, hogweed climbs to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 28 / 61 ATK, and its DEF reaches 8 — modest armor for a soft herb, so most of its growth is in health. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys it the durability to keep healing and poisoning through a long fight.
As a perennial herb, hogweed is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and is hit for only ×0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play hogweed as a native buffer that outlasts: the HP cushion, bench overshield, self-healing attacks, and contact poison let it soak damage and tax attackers. As an invasive its ATK jump makes it a passable racer, but its damage is still modest, so it works better as durable support. It is inedible, so feeding it any nutrient banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins. It fights as a fast skirmisher until about level 33, after which its bulk takes over, so there is no reason to hold it back from leveling.
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.