Hypericum triquetrifolium
A native-only Mediterranean herb that poisons the foe with its opening strike, heals mid-fight, and grinds out long battles.
Tangled hypericum is a wiry Mediterranean Perennial herb that fights as a defensive irritant: its opening strike poisons the enemy, it mends itself mid-fight, and it clings on through a long grind. It is native to Africa and Europe, and no invasive card exists — the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer for your bench. It is a patient support card rather than a hitter.
Its starter attack, Volatile Oils, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 26 damage and leaving the target poisoned. The free once-per-battle ability, Stabilization, arrives at level 25: Pins the ground down — the foe stalls, and can't break away. It is a mid-fight mend that suits its stalling game. The advanced attack, Perennial Problem, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (42 native), drawing on deep roots for a heavier blow. Most of your hypericum sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn. See Moves.
Hypericum keeps a single always-on trait, Resprout, and because it draws only one eligible trait, that slot arrives at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 one. When it works it lets hypericum survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter of its health — but it fires only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve rather than a guarantee. See Abilities.
Hypericum carries no contact trait keywords — no thorns, and although its starter attack poisons the foe, that is the move's own effect rather than a contact trait, so nothing punishes an attacker merely for striking it. The plant itself is non-toxic, so nothing chemical bites back when it is hit. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium/magnesium amendment for a little extra DEF — suits its wear-them-down game.
At level 40 hypericum reads 103 HP and 23 ATK. DEF is just 4, at the soft floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with almost no armor and relies on its poison and healing instead — damage is diminishing armor (ATK ÷ (ATK+DEF)), not flat subtraction. Its tempo is worth reading off the card: turn 1 runs on its initiative (32) and every turn after on its SPD (34); if SPD sits higher it is a slow starter that cruises, and if initiative leads it opens fast and fades. Retreat costs 16 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, hypericum swells to 190 HP and 42 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 8 — as a soft herb it gains bulk in health and almost none in armor, so it stays vulnerable to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 33 Sun as it roots in, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature hypericum acts last against almost anything younger. Maturing buys HP and staying power; what it costs is speed.
As a perennial herb, hypericum 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 and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play hypericum as a native buffer and defensive irritant: bench it to lend a fragile hitter the HP cushion and overshield, or lead with it to poison the enemy active and heal through the exchange. Its damage is modest, so it works better as support than as a finisher. On economy, hypericum is inedible, so no fertilizer pays coins — any nutrient instead banks ×1.25 XP, a growth boost rather than income. It plays as an even-tempo skirmisher whose bulk takes over as it levels, crossing over around level 23 — but it is always stronger at higher levels in raw stats, 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.