Persicaria barbata
A native-only aquatic that stalls the foe, resists chip damage, and at high level shrugs off Burn and drain — but can't be healed once it does.
Bearded knotweed is an aquatic — a soft, damage-capped category that plays around control and denial. It is native across Africa, East Asia, Europe, Oceania and South Asia and invasive nowhere, so it plays a native-only buffer role. Its game is stalling and status control rather than damage.
Its opening attack, Drown (level 1, 2 Sun), holds the foe under for 28 and can cost it a turn: "Holds it under long enough to miss its turn." The ability Terrestrialization (level 25) does "Fills the water in entirely — the foe stalls and withers." — a stall-and-wither. Its advanced attack, Silt Choke (level 40), costs 6 Sun for 32 across the back row: "Silts the whole back row in."
From level 10 it carries Aerenchyma — a flat reduction on incoming direct attacks, from air-filled buoyant tissue. At level 68 it adds Waterlogged, a distinctive immunity: its saturated tissue will not Burn and has nothing to drain, so Burn and all HP-stealing effects fail against it — but the same waterlogging halts its own repair, so it cannot be healed at all. That is a real trade-off: above level 68 it becomes immune to two nasty effects but loses access to every heal. Below level 68 it has only the damage reduction.
No thorns, no toxin. Not a climber, so no Moss Pole. Its control moves and Aerenchyma reward drawn-out fights; just remember that once Waterlogged comes online it can no longer be topped up, so leaning on heals is not its plan.
At level 40 it reads HP 103, ATK 25, DEF 2 (floor, plus the flat Aerenchyma reduction), retreat 16 Sun. Its opening tempo is a low 13 and its sustained tempo 34 (moderate): it is slow to open and picks up after, so it usually takes the first hit. As a native it lends a +15% HP cushion and a bench overshield. Its attacks are damage-capped as an aquatic.
By the cap, HP swells to 190 and ATK to 45, but DEF reaches only 3 — an aquatic gains biomass, not armor, though the flat Aerenchyma reduction still helps against small hits. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and its tempo sinks near floor. Maturing buys a large HP pool, its two status immunities, and the standing cost of never being healed.
Bearded knotweed is a Ruderal: ×1.5 into Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), ×1.5 taken from Competitors (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs, broadleaf trees), even with fellow Ruderals.
Play it as a native control-buffer: stall the foe, deny its turns, and chip the back row while lending a cushion from your bench. Its soft armor and modest attack make it a support and denial card rather than a solo coin-earner, so pair it with a hitter. Its high-level Waterlogged immunity is real value against Burn- and drain-heavy opponents, at the cost of its own healing. It is edible with a leaf you eat, so a Nitrogen amendment pays ×1.25 coins (any other fertilizer banks ×1.25 XP). It skirmishes on tempo early and leans on bulk after about level 12; level it up.
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.