Myrica caroliniensis
A neutral-range shrub with no nativity bonus in the arena.
The Southern bayberry is a shrub in Supplant. It carries no recorded native or invasive range, so the arena never grants it a nativity bonus: it always fights as a plain neutral card, with neither the native HP cushion nor the invasive attacker's edge.
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. Berry is the starter attack, available from level 1 for 2 Sun. The free once-per-battle ability, Thicket Formation, unlocks at level 25: Closes into thicket — Bind, and the foe can't heal. The advanced attack, Briar Cage, comes online at level 40 for 6 Sun — Closes a briar cage around the foe — held, and sapped.
Its attacks land for about 29 (starter) and 21 (advanced) at the snapshot level — plain base numbers, since no nativity bonus applies.
Turn order splits across two stats: initiative (30) decides who moves first on turn 1, and SPD (34) decides every turn after. This one is slow off the mark but relentless once the fight settles — it usually loses turn 1 and then takes the tempo from turn 2 onward. See turn order for how the two interact.
Southern bayberry runs a trait on both risers. Extrafloral Nectaries (level 10) takes 3% of the attacker's own max HP per hit, past DEF and the overshield. Lignotuber (level 68) makes the card Burn-proof, turning an applied Burn into a heal. See Abilities.
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.
At the snapshot level (40) it reads roughly HP 89 (its plain, un-cushioned base), DEF 13, with a retreat cost of 16 Sun and tempo pips of 30 initiative / 34 SPD. Its DEF sits in the firm shrub band — better than a weed, well short of a tree. With no nativity bonus its HP and ATK sit at base — no native cushion, no invasive ATK ramp — so it is a middle-of-the-road body on every stat. 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 firms into a solid mid-armor bruiser: DEF around 28 and HP toward 165 — tougher than a weed, still short of a tree. Retreat rises to 33 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.
With no nativity role it is a straightforward neutral body — no cushion to lean on, no attacker's edge to exploit. A shrub sits in the middle of the armor table — firmer than a weed, nowhere near a tree. It is a serviceable mid-line body rather than a carry. It is inedible in the game's economy, so any fertilizer you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins — useful as level fodder, not as a coin source. 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.