Rumex alpinus
A perennial herb that poisons with its opening attack and cruises hard in long fights — a European native or an Eastern North American invader.
Monk's rhubarb is a broad-leaved Perennial herb that fights as an attritional card: its opener poisons the enemy, it mends itself, and it out-paces foes badly the longer a fight runs. It is native to Europe and invasive across Eastern North America, so the arena can field it either way — as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker. It is a dependable, disruptive support card whose poison and late-fight speed outweigh its modest raw damage.
Its starter attack, Rhizome Creep, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 29 damage as a native and 31 as an invasive and leaving the target poisoned with its bitter sap. The free once-per-battle ability, Seral Persistence, arrives at level 25: Refuses to be replaced: heal 60%, and the foe can't heal. — a mid-fight mend that stretches its longevity. The advanced attack, Alkaloid Ambush, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (24 native / 25 invasive) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your monk's rhubarb sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn. See Moves.
Monk's rhubarb keeps a single always-on trait, Resprout. Because it draws only one eligible trait, Resprout arrives at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 one. When it works it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter of its health — but it fires only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve rather than a guarantee. See Abilities.
Monk's rhubarb carries no trait keywords, and it is non-toxic — so although its starter applies Poison to the enemy, striking the rhubarb itself poisons no attacker; there is no contact recoil. (The poison is an offensive move effect, not a defensive trait; see statuses for how it ticks.) Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium/magnesium amendment — suits its grind; as an invasive, offensive gear makes its poison and pressure count.
At level 40 monk's rhubarb reads 103 HP native and 89 invasive, with ATK of 23 native versus 28 invasive — compare the two to gauge the invasive edge on this card. DEF is just 4, at the soft floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with almost no armor and relies on poison and healing instead. Its tempo is sharply back-loaded: a very low initiative (13) means it is slow off the mark and usually takes the first hit, but a much higher SPD (34) lets it dominate turn order from turn 2 on, so it becomes markedly more dangerous the longer a fight runs. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active; 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, monk's rhubarb swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 41 / 53 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 8 — as a soft herb it gains bulk in health and almost none in armor, so it stays vulnerable to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 33 Sun as it roots in, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so even its once-large SPD lead over its own initiative flattens out and it acts last against almost anything younger.
As a perennial herb, monk's rhubarb 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; 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 monk's rhubarb as a disruptive grinder: lead with it to poison the enemy active, heal through the exchange, and let its SPD take over the longer the fight runs. As a native it doubles as a fair buffer; as an invasive it leans on its higher ATK and poison to pressure, at the cost of Faustian chip to your own bench. On economy it is a bonus: it is an edible leaf plant, so feeding it Nitrogen pays ×1.25 coins, while any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead. It fights as a slow-starting cruiser whose bulk and speed take over as it levels, crossing over around level 12 as a native and 15 as an invasive — but it is always stronger at higher levels in raw stats, 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.