Parrotia persica
A broadleaf tree with strong armor, a bench-healing mycorrhiza, and a larger-than-usual bench overshield, playable as a native wall or a light invasive attacker.
Persian ironwood is a broadleaf-tree: an armored, patient card. It is native to Europe, where it plays the native buffer/wall role, and it is invasive in East Asia, where it becomes a light attacker. Both roles are worth planning for. As a Near-Threatened species it also projects a bigger-than-usual bench overshield.
The starter attack, Branch Slam, is available from Lv 1, costs 2 Sun and deals 32 damage as a native or 33 as an invasive: A heavy branch slams down.
The free once-per-battle ability, Canopy Recruitment, unlocks at Lv 25 and deals no damage — Pushes a sapling into the canopy: heal 35% and +3 ATK. A heal plus a permanent ATK bump is strong on a card that plans to stay in the fight.
The advanced attack, Deadfall, unlocks at Lv 40, costs 6 Sun and deals 39 native / 40 invasive damage — its heaviest hit: The whole tree comes down. No move here carries an initiative rider.
From its trait schedule it keeps Buttress Roots from Lv 10 and Mycorrhiza from Lv 68. Buttress Roots is an immunity trait: its wide flare roots mean it cannot be Bound, so it can never be held in place and can always retreat — always on, with no roll. Mycorrhiza is one of the chance-based sustain traits: it heals the bench and triggers only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a useful but unreliable trickle rather than a guarantee. Its toxicity is none and it holds no Toxin trait, so it does not poison attackers on contact.
This is an unarmed, non-toxic tree, so an attacker takes no recoil from it. For field gear, a Calcium/Magnesium amendment stacks flat DEF onto its already-firm tree armor; the same pick serves both roles. It is not a climber, so no Moss Pole. Benched behind another card it projects a fuller overshield bar than most, thanks to its Near-Threatened status.
At the snapshot level of 40, DEF reads 24 — solid tree armor. Native HP is 103 (with the 15% native cushion) versus 89 as an invasive; ATK steps from 16 native to 19 invasive, a modest introduced-range bump, so it is a light hitter either way. As an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. Its opening tempo 41 is higher than its sustained tempo 32, so it is a quick starter that slows into a cruiser. Retreat costs 13 Sun. See stats.
By the endgame HP reaches 190 native / 165 invasive and DEF hardens to 55, a genuine wall. Retreat rises to 25 Sun as it roots in, and the inverted tempo has fallen to roughly its floor, so the quick opening it enjoys at Lv 40 is gone — it trades early speed for a very hard-to-remove body.
As a broadleaf tree it is a Competitor: strong (×1.5) into Ruderal cards and resisted (×1.5 against it) by Specialists. See weaknesses & resistances.
Native, it is a strong wall: real armor, a heal-and-buff ability, a 60%-chance bench heal from Mycorrhiza, and a fuller overshield to lend the rest of your team. Invasive, it becomes a light attacker, though the ATK bump is small and the bench self-damage is a genuine cost, so the native role is usually the better use. It is not edible, so fertilizer banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins. Its native crossover sits around Lv 22 and its invasive one around Lv 26; below those levels it leans on its early speed, above them on its bulk and armor.
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.