Petasites albus
A native-only perennial-herb that poisons on contact and pins the foe in place, a soft control skirmisher.
White butterbur is a perennial-herb: a soft, fast card that fights with poison and control. It is native to Africa and Europe and invasive nowhere, so it plays only the native buffer role — a +15% HP cushion fielded, an HP overshield projected onto your active when benched.
Its starter, Bitter Sap (Level 1, 2 Sun), deals 29 and Bitter compounds poison the foe. The free ability, Stabilization (25), is Pins the ground down — the foe stalls, and can't break away. — it stops the foe from breaking away. The advanced attack, Alkaloid Ambush (40, 6 Sun), deals 24 and Poisons before the foe can react. See Moves.
From Level 10 it carries Bitter Principle: striking it Withers the attacker, cutting its ATK, on every damaging hit it takes. At Level 68 Contractile Roots stacks on: at each checkup it gains a point of DEF, up to five, as its roots pull the crown deeper — a slow hardening over a long fight. Neither is a heal.
No thorns or toxin keyword; its poison comes from its moves, not a toxicity tier. Not Moss-Pole-eligible. A Calcium/Magnesium field gear amendment helps its soft DEF; inedible, so nutrients bank XP.
At Level 40 it reads 103 HP and 24 ATK, with a soft DEF of 1. Retreat is 12 Sun. Its opening initiative is 38 and sustained SPD is 49: quick from the start and quicker still as the fight runs on — one of the faster herbs. Contractile Roots slowly stiffens that soft DEF over a drawn-out fight.
By Level 100 HP grows to 190 and ATK to 43, while base DEF stays soft at 1 (Contractile Roots aside). Retreat rises to 23 Sun and its early speed fades. Leveling adds biomass, not much armor.
As a Competitor it hits ruderals for 1.5x and is resisted to 0.667x by Specialists; neutral against other Competitors and Weird. See the succession wheel.
A control skirmisher: field it to poison the foe, pin it in place with its ability so it cannot retreat, and let Bitter Principle sap its ATK while poison ticks it down. It is frail, so it wants to win the exchange quickly or hand off to a wall. Inedible, so fertilizer banks 1.25x XP. A useful single-player harasser rather than a carry. It skirmishes on speed until about Level 31, after which its bulk leads — level it freely.
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.