Malus hupehensis
A broadleaf tree that buffers on its native turf and attacks where it is invasive.
The Chinese crab apple is a broadleaf tree in Supplant. It is native to East Asia and invasive in Europe, Eastern North America, Western North America and South Asia, so it can take whichever role the arena hands it — a defensive buffer on its home turf, or an aggressive attacker where it counts as an introduced weed.
Its kit fills in across three slots, and most of your copies will be well below the snapshot level of 40 where all three are live — the plant unlocks them as it grows. Limb Lash is the starter attack, available from level 1 for 2 Sun. The free once-per-battle ability, Canopy Recruitment, unlocks at level 25: Pushes a sapling into the canopy: heal 35% and +3 ATK. The advanced attack, Root Heave, comes online at level 40 for 6 Sun — Heaves the ground up under the foe — trapped, and sapped.
As a native its attacks land for about 36 (starter) and 19 (advanced); as an invasive those rise to 40 and 21 as the introduced-range aggression matures.
Turn order splits across two stats: initiative (41) decides who moves first on turn 1, and SPD (34) decides every turn after. This one is the quicker starter — it tends to land the opening blow on turn 1, then cede the pace as the fight wears on. See turn order for how the two interact.
It reads Thorns from level 10, and a second passive, Mycorrhiza, stacks on at level 68.
Thorns. Every attacker that lands a damaging hit on it takes flat recoil off its own HP, and a multi-hit attack eats that recoil once per hit. It fires independently and stacks with any chemical recoil.
Mycorrhiza. A 60% chance each turn to heal a benched ally through the shared root network. Like Network, it is a support effect that pays off from the bench rather than in a duel — and because it only lands about three times in five, treat it as a bonus, not a plan.
It carries thorns, so any attacker that hits it pays contact recoil (see Abilities); an armature rating is what sets that thorn damage. For field gear, a Calcium/Magnesium amendment adds flat DEF (most worthwhile on a bulky front-liner, least on a soft body), and the N/P/K fertilizers drive its economy (see Gameplay uses). This species is not Moss-Pole-eligible: that gear is keyed on a climbing growth habit (vine, epiphyte or hemiepiphyte), and its species record carries no growth-habit tag. Played native, favor defensive gear; played invasive, favor anything that pushes its attack.
At the snapshot level (40) it reads roughly HP 103, DEF 26, with a retreat cost of 14 Sun and tempo pips of 41 initiative / 34 SPD. Its DEF is tree-grade — a real wall that climbs with level, so a hit is blunted by diminishing armor (ATK ÷ (ATK + DEF)), though poison ignores plating entirely. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects a green HP overshield bar onto your active. As an invasive its ATK rises toward 23 (against 17 native), and it pays "Faustian" self-damage to its own bench on every damaging hit it lands. Sun refills at +1 every 15 minutes up to a cap of 120; an empty bar attack-locks the plant. From level 52 it regenerates Sun mid-battle, and a level 85 capstone drops its starter to free. See stats.
It climbs into a wall: DEF hardens to about 60 on its wood density while HP swells toward 190. This is where a tree earns its keep. Retreat rises to 29 Sun (an older plant is more rooted and costlier to pull), and the inverted tempo has sunk to its floor by now — the fast opening it had as a seedling is gone, so a mature copy leans entirely on power rather than turn order.
In the succession wheel it is a Competitor. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs) for extra damage (×1.5), and takes extra damage from Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes). Against its own group and the off-wheel "Weird" categories it is neutral. See the type chart.
Play it native as a defensive buffer — the HP cushion and bench overshield make it a body that protects the rest of your team. Play it invasive as an attacker, remembering it concedes 2 prizes on a knockout and bleeds its own bench with Faustian self-damage each hit. Trees are the heavyweights of Supplant. Behind a wall of DEF and deep HP this is a genuinely strong card — a front-line wall on defence and a hard-hitting bruiser on the attack. It is edible (the game tags the fruit as the eaten part), so feeding it the matching Phosphorus fertilizer pays ×1.25 coins — a steady earner between battles; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead. In the Total power gallery below you can watch it trade a fast-skirmisher opening for raw bulk as it levels: it leans on speed until about level 23, after which its power takes over. It is monotonically stronger the higher it goes, so there is never a 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.