Potamogeton natans
A non-toxic aquatic buffer that wilts the enemy active and pools defence from its benched ruderals — a widespread native with no invasive form.
Broad leaved Pondweed is a floating-leaved Aquatic that fights as a wilting buffer: it saps the enemy active with an aura, sustains itself through exchanges, and borrows armor from the ruderals behind it. It is native across Africa, East Asia, Europe, Eastern and Western North America, and South Asia, and has no invasive form, so the arena only fields it as a native buffer.
Its starter attack, Colonize, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about {{move.starter.power.native}} damage and sapping the target as it hits. The free once-per-battle ability, Eutrophic Pulse, arrives at level 25: A nutrient bloom fouls the water — the foe's whole bench sickens. The advanced attack, Water Under the Bridge, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (39 damage), mending the plant as it strikes and leaving the target poisoned. Most of your pondweed sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Broad leaved Pondweed keeps two always-on traits. Allelopathy arrives on the level 10 riser as a wilt aura that steadily saps the enemy active while pondweed is out. Duff Stuff arrives later, on the level 68 riser: while it is your active plant its effective DEF rises by half the summed DEF of your alive benched ruderals — annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, and bulbs. It is recomputed live, so the bonus shrinks as those allies faint, and the donors keep their own DEF; it is a genuine, always-on defence, not a chance-based one. See Abilities.
Broad leaved Pondweed is non-toxic, so it has no contact recoil and no poison rider — striking it costs an attacker nothing. Its habit is terrestrial for gear purposes, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium or magnesium amendment for a little DEF — shores up its thin armor and lets it stall longer behind its wilt aura. See statuses.
At level 40 pondweed reads 103 HP with ATK of 29, so its own offence is modest and it wins by attrition. DEF is just 2, at the soft floor of the aquatic band, so on its own it takes hits with almost no armor and relies on the Duff Stuff pool instead. Its tempo is very uneven: turn 1 runs on a low initiative (13) and every turn after on a much higher SPD (51), so it is badly out-paced on the opening exchange but relentless once the fight settles. 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, pondweed swells to 190 HP and 55 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 3 — as a soft aquatic it buys bulk in health and almost none in armor, so it stays exposed to any real hitter and depends on the benched-ruderal pool for real toughness. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature card acts last against almost anything younger.
As a ruderal, pondweed sits in the Ruderal succession group. It hits Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Competitor plants (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs, broadleaf trees), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Ruderals and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play Broad leaved Pondweed as a native wilting buffer: keep it active behind a couple of live ruderals so Duff Stuff holds its armor up, let the wilt aura and the sapping starter grind the enemy active down, and use the advanced attack to mend while you poison. It is a stall piece, not a finisher — its own damage is low, so it wins slow fights, not fast ones. On economy, pondweed is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth rather than coins. It plays as a slow-opening, fast-cruising staller that leans harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 20 — but it is always stronger at higher levels, so there is no reason to hold it back.
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.