Spinacia oleracea
A non-toxic annual-forb whose starter ramps harder each hit, pooling defence from its benched ruderals as a native buffer or an invasive attacker.
Spinach is a low, leafy Annual forb that fights as a light ramping attacker: its opener grows more dangerous the longer it keeps landing, and it borrows armor from the ruderals sitting behind it. It is native across East Asia, Europe, and South Asia, and invasive through Africa, Eastern and Western North America, Oceania, and South America, so the arena can field it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker.
Its starter attack, Hypergrowth, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun; it has no fixed damage number — it hits harder each time it lands, a pioneer-spread ramp that also cuts through armor. The free once-per-battle ability, Germination Flush, arrives at level 25: The seed bank breaks at once: +4 ATK, kept for the match. The advanced attack, Allergenic Odor, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (27 native / 31 invasive). Most of your spinach sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Spinach keeps two always-on traits. Duff Stuff arrives on the level 10 riser: while it is your active plant its effective DEF rises by half the summed DEF of your alive benched ruderals — annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, and bulbs. It is recomputed live, so the bonus shrinks as those allies faint, and the donors keep their own DEF; it is a genuine, always-on defence, not a chance-based one. Reseed arrives later, on the level 68 riser: when spinach is knocked out a fresh Seedling token steps up in its place, the annual-forb signature. See Abilities.
Spinach is non-toxic, so it has no contact recoil and no poison rider — striking it costs an attacker nothing. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium or magnesium amendment for a little DEF — shores up its thin armor; as an invasive, offensive gear pushes its aggression. See statuses.
At level 40 spinach reads 84 HP native and 73 invasive, with ATK of 20 native versus 32 invasive — the invasive gap is real, though its raw attack is low even so. DEF is just 2, at the soft floor of the annual-forb band, so on its own it takes hits with almost no armor and relies on the Duff Stuff pool and its ramping starter instead. Its tempo is uneven: turn 1 runs on its initiative (39) and every turn after on its higher SPD (48), so it is out-paced on the opening exchange but relentless once the fight settles. Retreat costs 12 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 on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, spinach swells to 147 HP native / 128 invasive and 36 / 66 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 3 — as a soft weed it buys bulk in health and almost none in armor, so it stays exposed to any real hitter and depends on the benched-ruderal pool for real toughness. Retreat rises to 24 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature card acts last against almost anything younger.
As a ruderal, spinach sits in the Ruderal succession group. It hits Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Competitor plants (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs, broadleaf trees), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Ruderals and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play spinach as a ramping skirmisher: keep it active behind a couple of live ruderals so Duff Stuff holds its armor up, and let the armor-ignoring starter build up over successive turns against a wall. As a native it is a fine buffer that stiffens while your other weeds are alive; as an invasive its higher ATK helps the ramp, though its base damage is low, so it wants a long fight. On economy, spinach is edible at the leaf, so feeding it Nitrogen pays ×1.25 coins while any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth. It plays as a slow-opening, fast-cruising ramp that leans harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 38 as a native and 38 as an invasive — but it is always stronger at higher levels, 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.