Spiraea betulifolia
A thorny mid-sized shrub that trades slowly and wins by grinding — an East Asian native or a European invader.
White spirea is a Shrub that fights as a thorny, durable grinder: modest damage, a self-mend, and a hide that stings anything that hits it. It is native to East Asia and invasive in Europe, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker. It is a serviceable, unspectacular card that earns its keep by outlasting rather than out-hitting.
Its starter attack, Bramblemaze, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing a plain hit of about 28 damage as a native and 28 as an invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Shrubland Sere, comes in at level 25: Settles the slope: heal 35%, and the foe withers. The advanced attack, Briar Cage, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (20 native / 20 invasive) and saps the target, withering its attack as it lands. Most of your spirea sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn.
White spirea keeps one always-on trait: Thorns. It arrives at full strength on the level 10 riser and stays on for the rest of the plant's life. Thorns is a contact trait — it does not help spirea attack, it punishes anything that attacks spirea. See Abilities for how always-on traits arrive on the risers.
Spirea carries the Thorns trait keyword, so an attacker that strikes it takes a little recoil damage in return — a small tax on melee that adds up over a long fight. It is non-toxic: no contact poison, no hazard ring. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear that adds DEF or HP suits its grinding game; as an invasive, lean into offense to make its aggression count.
At level 40 spirea reads 103 HP as a native and 89 as an invasive, with ATK of 21 native versus 21 invasive — the invasive edge is real but modest. DEF is 11, in the middle of the shrub band, so it takes hits better than a soft herb but is no wall. Its tempo is lopsided: turn 1 runs on a low initiative (20) so it is out-paced early, but every turn after runs on a higher SPD (35), so it becomes relentless once a fight settles. Retreat costs 14 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield bar 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, spirea swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 37 / 37 ATK, and its DEF climbs to 23 — a shrub grows into a moderate wall, tougher than any herb but short of a conifer. Retreat rises to 28 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature spirea acts last against almost anything young.
As a shrub, spirea is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants for x1.5 and is hit for only x0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants, which strike it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play spirea as a patient trader that punishes attackers with Thorns and mends itself mid-fight. As a native it is a decent buffer whose cushion and overshield help a fragile hitter survive; as an invasive its aggression is only middling, so it works better as support than as a finisher. Its value is economic: it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks x1.25 XP instead of coins, making it a steady growth investment rather than a coin-earner. It fights as a slow opener that leans harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 15 as a native and 19 as an invasive — 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.