Rosa villosa
A firm-DEF Competitor shrub with no in-game native or invasive range, so it plays only as its neutral base card - a self-healing bench harasser.
Apple rose is a shrub, one of the Competitor categories. It has no recorded native or invasive range in the game's regions, so neither the native buffer role nor the invasive attacker role applies to it: it plays only as its neutral base card. Everything below describes that base profile. See categories for what a shrub does in battle.
Its kit unlocks in three stages. Chipmunk Horde is the starter attack from Lv 1 at 2 Sun, sending hoarders through the foe's whole bench for 26. Thicket Formation is the free once-per-battle ability at Lv 25: Closes into thicket — Bind, and the foe can't heal. It deals no damage but pins the foe and cuts off its healing. Hedge Fund is the advanced attack at Lv 40 for 6 Sun, dealing 29 and healing the plant for 30% in the same turn. No move carries an initiative rider, so it acts in the normal order.
From its trait schedule it keeps two always-on traits. Extrafloral-Nectaries arrives at Lv 10: whenever an attacker lands a damaging hit on it, its nectar recruits ant bodyguards that chip that attacker for about 3% of its max HP - a contact-retaliation bite that ignores DEF and the overshield. Drupe-Mast stacks on at Lv 68: when the plant faints, its heavy fruiting feeds the stand, healing its own bench for roughly 8% of their max HP. At the snapshot level of 40 only the first is active. Although it is in the rose family, its schedule holds no Thorns trait, so it inflicts no contact recoil.
It carries no special combat keywords and is not toxic. It is not a climber, so it is not Moss Pole eligible. Its most valuable field gear is economic - it is edible with a resolved fruit part, so a Phosphorus amendment pays coins - while a Calcium/Magnesium amendment would push its already-respectable shrub DEF higher.
At Lv 40 the neutral card shows 89 HP (the base pool, with no native cushion), 22 ATK, and 11 DEF, firmer than any Ruderal weed. Retreat costs 14 Sun. Its tempo runs slightly ahead at the open: initiative 36 orders turn 1 and SPD 33 orders later turns, so it strikes a touch sooner early than it cruises. With no native role it projects no overshield bar of its own, but on the field it can still hold up to four bars from benched natives; with no invasive role it pays no self-damage.
Maturing lifts HP to 165 and, being a shrub, its DEF climbs meaningfully to 23 - a firmer wall than a weed will ever reach, though short of a full canopy tree. Retreat rises to 27 Sun and its tempo settles to roughly one percent of cap, so its slight early-speed lead is gone by the endgame. Age buys it durability to keep chipping the bench and self-healing.
Shrub is a Competitor category. Competitors crowd out Ruderals, dealing x1.5 to annual-forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs, but are outlasted by Specialists, taking x1.5 from succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes. Damage is even against other Competitors and the neutral Weird group.
It is a serviceable mid-tier card. The firm shrub DEF and Hedge Fund's built-in 30% self-heal let it trade for a while, and Chipmunk Horde's bench-wide hit plus Thicket Formation's Bind and heal-lock give it real disruption. Its damage is modest, so it grinds rather than bursts. Outside battle it earns coins: edible with a fruit part, it pays x1.25 coins on a Phosphorus feed, and it is a clean family-tree pickup. It plays as a quicker skirmisher until about Lv 25, after which its bulk and armor carry 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.