Steganotaenia araliacea
The carrot tree is the rare broadleaf tree that leans on attack and self-healing instead of bulk — its ATK reaches roughly the top quarter of the category while its HP sits in the lowest band it uses.
Most broadleaf trees win by refusing to fall; the carrot tree wins by hitting and mending. Its ATK of 25 at Lv 40 sits in roughly the top quarter of the broadleaf-tree pool, while its HP lands in the lowest of the three HP bands the category uses — an attack-forward, low-bulk profile that is unusual for a group built around being a wall. Every one of its moves also heals, so it fights by wearing an opponent down rather than by mass. It is a small African tree (Steganotaenia araliacea, Apiaceae), native to Africa and invasive nowhere, so it plays only as a native buffer — there is no attacker version of this card to build.
The kit is unlocked across three slots, and unusually for a tree all three restore health:
None of these moves carries the initiative rider, so turn order is decided purely by the tempo stats (see Stats). Most cards you own will be well below Lv 40 and holding only the starter for a long time — the healing ability and the advanced attack arrive later. See Moves and Abilities.
The carrot tree keeps two always-on traits, and neither is one of the broadleaf-tree headline passives — it drew a pair of immunities instead of the Network overshield or the Mycorrhiza bench heal, so do not expect those from this card.
Both are binary immunities, so they always work when they apply — there is no chance roll on them, unlike the sustain traits some other plants carry.
The card carries no special trait keywords, and it is not a climber, so it does not take a Moss Pole. As a native buffer with thin base health, it appreciates a Calcium/Magnesium soil amendment, which adds flat DEF on top of its category floor and firms up an otherwise soft young tree. See field gear for the full set.
Read at Lv 40, where the whole kit is unlocked. HP is 103 with the native +15% cushion already included, which its thin bulk is glad of; DEF is 24, middling for the category. Its tempo is split between two stats: opening initiative 38 decides turn one, and sustained SPD 34 decides every turn after — both ordinary for a tree. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it can also project a bench overshield onto whatever card is active. There is no invasive role, so it never pays the invasive bench self-damage. See Stats.
The carrot tree does not stay soft. By Lv 100 its HP climbs to 190 and its DEF hardens to 55 — the floor-to-cap law carries a lean sapling into a genuine wall, so the low-bulk framing above is a fact about the mid-game card, not the endgame one. Retreat rises to 33 Sun as it becomes more rooted, and the inverted tempo sinks toward its floor, so the fast-ish opener of Lv 40 is a slow mover by the cap. Maturing buys it survivability at the cost of turn order.
Roughly USDA zone 8a — it should come through winters that bottom out near -10 °C. Colder than that and it wants shelter, a wall, or a winter indoors. In the plant's own terms its comfortable range runs from a cold edge of 9.9 °C to a warm edge of 31.5 °C, in the Tropical band — and that cold edge is the real story: this is a tropical African tree, so despite the zone label anywhere with true frost it wants a greenhouse or a spot indoors over winter. Treat the zone as roughly right, not a promise — it comes from a regression with an error of more than a full zone.
The card's climate chip is the player-facing form of this:
| Chip | What it means | Battle XP |
|---|---|---|
| Thrives here | your local winter low and summer heat both sit inside its range | x2 |
| In range | it survives where you are but sits near one of its edges | x1.25 |
| Colder than its range | your winters drop below what it tolerates; outdoors it needs protection | no bonus |
| Hotter than its range | your summers run past its warm edge | no bonus |
The reading is for where you are standing, so it changes as you travel, and climate affects only battle XP — never damage, stats, growth or coins. For most temperate players this tropical tree will read "colder than its range," which is a fact about the winter outside, not a verdict on the plant.
As a broadleaf tree it belongs to the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them, but it is on the back foot against Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which hit it for ×1.5 while it manages only ×0.667 back. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird categories it is neutral both ways.
The carrot tree is a native buffer that, unusually for a tree, does its work by attacking and healing rather than by soaking hits. Its all-heal kit and the heal-lock on Shade Tolerance let it out-last opponents its thin base HP would otherwise lose to, and Buttress Roots keeps it from being pinned. It is a serviceable coin-earner in single-player battles, but its low bulk means it wants a bench of natives behind it feeding the overshield rather than standing alone. It is not edible, so any fertilizer you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins. It is power-favored from very early — its crossover level is about Lv 20 — so there is no reason to hold it back; it only grows stronger as it levels. Overall a middling card lifted by a coherent self-sustain kit and a useful Bind immunity, with real collection value as an off-catalog African tree.
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.