Osmundastrum cinnamomeum
A native-only fern that poisons attackers and poisons the plant that kills it, built as a spiteful buffer.
Cinnamon Fern is a Fern that the arena only ever fields as a native buffer — it has no invasive form, so there is no attacker scenario for it. It is native across East Asia, Eastern and Western North America, South America, and South Asia. It plays as a spiteful support: hard to chew through and punishing to kill. See nativity.
Its starter attack, Spore Broadcast, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 28 damage (and 28 on the invasive stat line, though the fern is only ever fielded native) as a plain hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Gametophyte Rest, comes in at level 25: Falls back on the hidden generation: heal 35%. It applies poison. The advanced attack, Ptaquiloside Payload, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (28 / 28) and splashes damage onto the enemy bench while poisoning. Most of your ferns sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. No move carries an initiative rider. See moves and statuses.
Cinnamon Fern keeps two always-on traits. Unpalatable arrives at level 10 and works at full strength, blunting the damage it takes. Spores arrives at level 68 and poisons the plant that lands its killing blow, so an opponent that knocks it out inherits a lingering wound. See abilities.
Cinnamon Fern carries no trait keywords and is non-toxic in the contact sense — it shows no hazard ring, and its poison comes from its moves and its Spores trait rather than from a Toxin trait, so simply hitting it in melee draws no automatic recoil. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native buffer, defensive field gear suits its stalling game best.
At level 40 Cinnamon Fern reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 28 — a single base value, since it has no distinct invasive form. DEF is just 2, at the fern floor, so it relies on Unpalatable rather than raw armor to soak hits. Its tempo is slow and back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its low initiative (13) and every turn after on its higher SPD (34), so it is out-paced on the opening. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, Cinnamon Fern swells to 190 HP and 52 ATK, but its DEF barely moves to 3 — as a soft fern it gains health and almost no armor, leaning on Unpalatable and Spores to stay relevant. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature fern acts last against almost anything young.
As a fern, Cinnamon Fern is in the Specialist succession group. It hits Competitor plants (perennial herbs, shrubs, broadleaf trees) for x1.5 and takes only x0.667 from them; it is weak to Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), which strike it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Specialists and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play Cinnamon Fern as a native buffer that grinds through long fights: poison the target, splash the enemy bench, soak hits behind Unpalatable, and make anything that finally kills it pay through Spores. Its HP cushion and bench overshield help a sturdier ally survive. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks x1.25 XP rather than coins. It fights as a fast cruiser until about level 11, after which its bulk takes over; 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.