Ostrya virginiana
A native-only broadleaf tree with a sharper attack than most walls, a bench Sun overshield, and heavy late armor.
Ironwood is a Broadleaf tree that fights as a sturdy, moderately punchy tree: dependable armor, a respectable hit for a broadleaf, and bench support once it matures. It is native to Eastern North America, Western North America, and South America, and has no invasive form, so the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer — there is no attacker version. It is a solid, if unflashy, defensive card.
Its starter attack, Deathshadow, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and lands a plain hit of about 27 damage. The free once-per-battle ability, Old-Growth Reaction, arrives at level 25: Centuries of shade — the foe stalls and withers. The advanced attack, Mast Bombard, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (25 damage) and mends the tree as it strikes. Most of your ironwoods sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. See Moves.
Ironwood keeps two always-on traits, one per riser. Network arrives on the level 10 riser and, as a canopy tree, projects a gold Sun overshield bar from the bench onto your active plant. Mycorrhiza arrives on the level 68 riser and heals a benched ally, though it fires only about 60% of the time. Both make it a strong anchor once mature. See Abilities.
It carries no special trait keywords and is non-toxic, so an attacker takes no recoil or poison for hitting it. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear suits it well — a Cloche or a calcium/magnesium amendment stacks even more staying power onto its already strong armor.
At level 40 it reads 121 HP and 26 ATK — a slightly higher attack than most defensive trees, so it is not purely passive. DEF is 28, well within the broadleaf-tree band, giving it genuine armor. Its tempo is front-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (34) and later turns on its SPD (19), so it leads early then slows in a long fight. Retreat costs 15 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active plant. Link Stats.
Matured to level 100, Ironwood becomes an armored wall: 233 HP, 48 ATK, and DEF reaching 65 — as a tree it turns late growth into armor as well as health, so it endures almost anything. Retreat rises to 31 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature ironwood acts last. Maturing buys near-immovable bulk at the cost of speed.
As a broadleaf tree it sits in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them, but it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), 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 Ironwood as a defensive front-liner or bench anchor: it walls up well, feeds a Sun overshield and mycorrhiza heals from the bench, and hits a little harder than its peers when it needs to trade. It is a good all-round native buffer without a real weak spot beyond its slow tempo. It is inedible, so any nutrient banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins — a steady leveler. It opens quick and hardens into a wall as it grows, crossing over around level 9, always stronger at higher levels, 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.