Lespedeza hirta
A native-only legume herb with a surprisingly heavy attack for its category, a slow-building armor trait, and a chance to survive a lethal blow.
Hairy lespedeza is a perennial-herb and a legume (Fabaceae). It is native to eastern North America and invasive nowhere, so it plays a native-only buffer role — a bench cushion, never an introduced attacker. What sets it apart is an unusually high attack power for a soft herb, which makes it a passable single-player coin-earner despite thin armor.
Its opening attack, Crown Split (level 1), costs 2 Sun and hits for 44 — heavy for its category: "Splits at the crown and strikes from both." The ability Chronosequence (level 25) does "Time on its side: +3 ATK and speed, kept." — a kept attack-and-speed buff. Its advanced attack, Deep Root Strike (level 40), costs 6 Sun for 43: "Draws on deep roots for a heavy blow."
From level 10 it carries Basal Rosette — a flat +3 DEF, since a ground-hugging rosette resists grazing and mowing. At level 68 it adds Resprout: it survives one otherwise-lethal hit at about a quarter of its HP, and this lands about 60% of the time, so it is a coin-flip-plus reprieve, not a guarantee. Below level 68 it has only the small DEF bump.
No thorns, no toxin, no keyword. Not a climber, so no Moss Pole. Its Basal Rosette gives it a touch more armor than a typical herb, and its Resprout rewards staying in — it fights better than its floor category suggests.
At level 40 it reads HP 103, ATK 25, DEF 1, retreat 14 Sun. Its opening and sustained tempo are both 37 / 37 — evenly matched, so it neither races ahead nor falls behind, moving on par with an average foe. As a native it lends a +15% HP cushion and a bench overshield. Its high attack for the category means it punches above its DEF, but the DEF itself stays soft.
By the cap, HP climbs to 190 and ATK to 44, while DEF reaches only 2 — even with Basal Rosette it is no wall. Retreat rises to 29 Sun and its tempo sinks near floor. Maturing buys a hard-hitting, occasionally-reviving herb that still has to be protected from durable attackers.
Hairy lespedeza is a Competitor: ×1.5 into Ruderals (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), ×1.5 taken from Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), even with fellow Competitors.
Run it as a native buffer whose heavy attack lets it also clear some single-player fights — its Resprout gives it a real chance to steal a fight it should have lost. It is not edible, so any fertilizer banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins. As a legume, though, it has a distinct economy perk: about one in four caught in the wild arrives with a Nitrogen amendment already applied in its soil slot — a free head start worth a few hundred coins — though that nodule stock decomposes after about a month. It is power-favored from a fairly low level (crossover near level 26); level it up.
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.