Nahuatlea hypoleuca
A native-only shrub with real armor, a hit-blunting leaf and a bench heal on its knockout — a durable, collectible wall rather than a threat.
Nahuatlea hypoleuca is a Shrub that fights as a sturdy but passive wall: reasonable armor, modest damage, and nothing extra going on. It is native to eastern and western North America, and no invasive card exists for it, so it only ever plays the native buffer role that shields your bench. It is largely a collectible defensive body — useful as a shield, not as an attacker.
Most of your Nahuatlea sit below level 40, so the unlock levels matter. The starter attack, Frère Brer, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 28 damage — a plain hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Facilitation, arrives at level 25: Shelters its own and starves the rest: heal 50%, and the foe's bench withers. — it restores HP. The advanced attack, Thorn in the Side, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (30) and saps the target, withering its output. None of its moves seize the initiative. See Moves.
Nahuatlea hypoleuca holds two working traits. Sclerophylly (level 10) blunts each direct hit by a flat 3. Drupe Mast (level 68) heals every surviving ally 8% of that ally's max HP when this card is knocked out. See Abilities.
It carries no trait keywords and is non-toxic: no contact recoil, no poison rider, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear that adds DEF or HP suits its wall role well. See Field gear.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP with ATK of 20. DEF is 11, a genuine mid-band shrub value, so it soaks physical hits far better than a herb or grass. Its tempo is a slow start into a faster cruise: turn 1 on its initiative (34), out-paced; later turns on its SPD (46), where it holds up. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active — its main contribution. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, it climbs toward an armored wall: 190 HP and 35 ATK, with DEF reaching 21 — a real defensive number that blunts incoming damage. Retreat rises to 23 Sun and tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it acts near-last. Maturing buys durability rather than offense — and at level 68 Drupe Mast, so the card pays your bench out when it finally falls. See Stats.
As a shrub it is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for x1.5 and is struck for only x0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which hit it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group are neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play it as a native buffer: park it on the bench to feed an HP overshield to a fragile hitter, or lead with it to soak a few turns behind its armor. Its damage is only modest, so value it for the shield, the wall, and the bench heal it leaves behind. It is inedible, so feeding it any nutrient banks x1.25 XP rather than coins, and it banks that bonus reliably. It fights as a slow skirmisher early and leans on its bulk as it levels, with the crossover around level 27 — higher levels are always stronger, 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.