Prunus africana
A native-only thorned tree that returns damage to melee attackers and heals the bench late, with strong armor at the top.
African Almond is a Broadleaf tree that fights as a thorny defensive tree: good armor, a middling hit, and thorns that make attackers pay to touch it. It is native to Africa 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 defensive card whose thorns give it a little more bite than a plain wall.
Its starter attack, Limb Lash, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and lands a plain hit of about 40 damage. The free once-per-battle ability, Canopy Recruitment, arrives at level 25: Pushes a sapling into the canopy: heal 35% and +3 ATK. The advanced attack, Out on a Limb, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (40 damage) and mends the tree as it strikes. Most of your African Almonds sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. See Moves.
African Almond keeps two always-on traits, one per riser. Thorns arrives on the level 10 riser at full strength and returns a portion of damage to any plant that hits it in melee, so it punishes attackers just by being struck. Mycorrhiza arrives on the level 68 riser and heals a benched ally, though it fires only about 60% of the time. See Abilities.
Its trait keyword is thorns, the contact recoil described above. It is non-toxic, so an attacker takes no poison from it — but the thorns still bite back on melee, so it is never a free target. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear suits it: a Cloche or a calcium/magnesium amendment for extra staying power alongside its thorns. See also statuses.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP and 23 ATK — a modest attack, in line with a defensive tree. DEF is 26, well within the broadleaf-tree band, giving it real armor. Its tempo is front-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (33) and later turns on its SPD (28), so it leads early then slows in a long fight. Retreat costs 14 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, African Almond becomes an armored wall: 190 HP, 43 ATK, and DEF reaching 59 — as a tree it turns late growth into armor as well as health, and its thorns keep chipping anything that attacks it. Retreat rises to 29 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature tree acts last. Maturing buys a punishing wall 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 African Almond as a defensive front-liner that makes attackers regret hitting it: its thorns turn every enemy strike into a small self-inflicted wound, and its armor lets it hold the line while the bench heals. It is a reliable native buffer, best against melee-heavy opponents. It is inedible, so any nutrient banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins — a steady leveler. It opens quick and hardens into a thorned wall as it grows, crossing over around level 16, 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.