Monarda fistulosa
A soft perennial herb that poisons on its opening hit and self-heals through fights, and can play either arena role — a North American native or a European invader.
Wild bergamot is a soft Perennial herb that fights as a self-healing skirmisher: light armor, a poisoning opener, and even tempo throughout. It is native to Eastern and Western North America and invasive in Europe, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. It is a modest but dependable card that trades steadily rather than hitting hard.
Its starter attack, Taproot Anchor, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 30 damage as a native and 30 as an invasive, and it leaves the target poisoned so it keeps bleeding health after the hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Hemicryptophyte Hold, comes in at level 25: Hunkers at ground level — Bind and Wither the foe. The advanced attack, Perennial Problem, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (43 native / 43 invasive) — a straightforward, harder hit. Most of your bergamots sit below level 40, where only the starter move is available.
Wild bergamot keeps a single always-on trait: Resprout. Because it draws only one eligible trait, Resprout arrives at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 one. When it works it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter health — but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve, not a guarantee. See Abilities.
Wild bergamot carries no special trait keywords and is non-toxic in the arena sense: no contact recoil and no poison rider on being struck, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it (its poison comes only from its opening move). Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear suits its stalling game; as an invasive, offensive gear makes its aggression count.
At level 40 wild bergamot reads 103 HP as a native and 89 as an invasive, with ATK of 26 native versus 26 invasive — a slight invasive edge. DEF is just 1, at the floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with almost no armor. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on its initiative (37) and every turn after on its SPD (37), which match, so it is neither a fast opener nor a fast cruiser. Retreat costs 11 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench HP overshield onto your active; as an invasive it pays self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, wild bergamot swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 48 / 48 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 2 — as a soft herb it gains bulk in health, never armor, so it stays exposed to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 21 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature bergamot acts last against almost anything young.
As a perennial herb, wild bergamot is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants, 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 wild bergamot as a cheap, self-healing filler that opens with poison and trades evenly. As a native it makes a fair buffer — the HP cushion and bench overshield help a fragile hitter survive — while as an invasive its aggression is only moderate, so it works better as support than as a finisher. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins, a steady growth investment. It fights as an even-tempo skirmisher early and leans harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 25, so keep leveling it.
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.