Solidago speciosa
A native-only eastern North American herb with even tempo and a chance to survive one killing blow, but paper-thin armor and no invasive card.
Showy goldenrod is a soft Perennial herb that fights as a poison-laying survivor. It is native to eastern North America, and the arena only ever casts it as a native buffer for your bench; no invasive attacker card exists, so it supports rather than finishes. Its damage is average and its armor is almost nothing, so its whole appeal is the chance to shrug off a lethal hit and keep poisoning.
Its starter attack, Crown Split, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and deals about 42 damage while leaving poison on the target. The free once-per-battle ability, Seral Persistence, arrives at level 25: Refuses to be replaced: heal 60%, and the foe can't heal. It is a self-heal. The advanced attack, Perennial Problem, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun and lands a plain hit for about 42 damage. Most of your specimens sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn. See moves and statuses.
It keeps a single always-on trait: Resprout. It draws only one eligible trait, so 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 health, but it fires only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve rather than a guarantee. See abilities.
It carries no trait keywords and no toxin, so it shows no hazard ring and its contact deals no recoil; the poison it applies comes from its attacks. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear such as a Cloche helps it survive long enough for Resprout to matter.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP and 23 ATK. DEF is just 1, at the rock-bottom floor of its band, so almost anything hurts it. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on its initiative (46) and every turn after on its SPD (46), which sit at the same value, so it is neither a fast opener nor a fast cruiser. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench HP overshield. Link Stats.
Matured to level 100, it swells to 190 HP and 41 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 1 — as a soft herb it gains health, never armor, so it stays vulnerable to any strong hitter. Retreat rises to 23 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it acts near-last. Maturing brings Resprout to full strength, its main reason to level.
As a perennial herb it is in the Competitor group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for x1.5 and takes only x0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play it as a cheap, poison-laying buffer that buys time and can steal a turn when Resprout fires. As a native its cushion and bench overshield help a stronger ally survive while it chips away with poison. Its value is also economic: it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks x1.25 XP toward levels. Because its tempo is flat, it plays much the same off the mark as in a long fight, and its bulk grows relative to its speed from about level 33, so leveling it only helps.
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.