Prunus fruticosa
A thorny shrub that recoils damage onto attackers and pins its target, playing either role — a Eurasian native or an Eastern North American invader.
European dwarf cherry is a thorny Shrub that fights as a prickly, moderately armored controller. It is native to East Asia and Europe and invasive in Eastern North America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker (see nativity). Its thorns and a pinning attack let it grind opponents down.
Its starter attack, Berry, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 29 damage native / 29 invasive — a plain hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Chaparral Climax, arrives at level 25: Owns the dry hillside: heal 60% and +4 ATK. The advanced attack, Briar Cage, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (21 native / 21 invasive) and binds the target, pinning it so it cannot freely retreat. Most of your copies sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn.
It keeps one always-on trait: Thorns. It draws a single eligible trait, so Thorns arrives at full strength on the level 10 riser with no half-strength phase. Thorns recoils contact damage back onto any plant that strikes it, so attackers pay to trade with it. See Abilities.
Its one trait keyword is thorns, which produces the contact recoil above; its advanced move also applies a bind. It is non-toxic, with no poison rider and no hazard ring. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear that stretches its bulk suits its grind; as an invasive, offensive gear helps its slightly higher attack.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 23 native versus 23 invasive — a small gap, so both forms hit similarly. DEF is 11, in the middle of the shrub band, giving it real armor for its size. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on its initiative (35) and every turn after on its SPD (35), which sit at the same value, so it is neither a fast opener nor a fast cruiser. Retreat costs 14 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a benched HP overshield; as an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, it swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 41 / 42 ATK, and as a woody shrub its DEF climbs to 23 — a genuinely armored body, not just an HP sponge. Retreat rises to 29 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it acts late. Maturing buys a durable, thorny controller at the cost of speed.
As a shrub it is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants for ×1.5 and is struck for only ×0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants, which hit it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group are neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
As a native, play it as a thorny bench wall that punishes attackers while its cushion and overshield protect a fragile hitter; as an invasive, it is a competent front-liner that pins a target and taxes anything that trades with it. It is a steady, unflashy card. Its value is also economic: it is inedible, so any nutrient banks ×1.25 XP toward leveling. As a native it fights as an even skirmisher until about level 23, and as an invasive the crossover to bulk comes around level 26 — 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.