Medeola virginiana
A fragile ruderal bulb that leans on a bench of fellow ruderals for its defence and plays either arena role — an Eastern North American native or a South American invader.
Indian cucumber root is a soft Bulb that fights as a fragile skirmisher: its own armor is almost nothing, and it borrows toughness from a bench stacked with other ruderals. It is native to Eastern North America and invasive in South America, so the arena can field it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. Its damage is modest and its shell thin; it is a collection and coin piece more than a heavy hitter.
Its starter attack, Surprise, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 35 damage as a native and 35 as an invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Geophyte Dormancy, arrives at level 25: Retreats underground to mend: heal 45%. It is a mid-fight mend that can also pin the target. The advanced attack, Colchicine Cocktail, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (28 native / 28 invasive). Most of your indian cucumber root sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
It keeps two always-on traits. The first, Duff Stuff, arrives on the level 10 riser: while it is the active plant its effective DEF rises by half the combined DEF of your still-alive benched ruderals — annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs — recomputed live, so the cushion shrinks as those allies faint, though the donors keep their own DEF. It is a genuine, always-on defence, not a one-off. The second, 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 fires only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a lucky reprieve rather than a guarantee. See Abilities.
Indian cucumber root is non-toxic, so it has no contact recoil and no poison rider — striking it costs an attacker nothing. 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 DEF — shores up its thin armor; as an invasive, offensive gear pushes its aggression. See statuses.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP native and 89 invasive, with ATK of 25 native versus 25 invasive — the invasive edge is small (native ATK 25 up to invasive ATK 27). DEF is just 2, at the soft floor of the bulb band, so on its own it takes hits with almost no armor and leans on its benched ruderals through Duff Stuff instead. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (32) and every turn after on its SPD (34), so it is out-paced off the mark but relentless once a fight settles. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto 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, it swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 45 / 45 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 3 — as a soft bulb it buys bulk in health and almost none in armor, so it stays exposed to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature indian cucumber root acts last against almost anything younger.
As a ruderal bulb, indian cucumber root sits in the Ruderal succession group. It hits Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Competitor plants (perennial herbs, shrubs, vines, trees), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Ruderals and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play it native as a buffer that gets tougher the more ruderals you keep alive on the bench — Duff Stuff turns a full ruderal line into real armor while it is up front, and its benched overshield helps your active survive. As an invasive its slightly higher ATK lets it trade, but it is fragile and wins by chipping, not force; expect it to fold to any Competitor hitter. Out of battle it is a collection piece and a coin earner: it is edible with a resolved root, so feeding it Potassium pays ×1.25 coins, while any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth. It plays as a slow-starting, faster-cruising skirmisher leaning harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 23 as a native and 26 as an invasive — but it is always stronger at higher levels, 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.