Styrax japonicus
A small broadleaf tree that heals a benched ally on a coin-flip and later shields your active from the canopy — plays either arena role, an East Asian native or a North American invader.
Japanese snowbell is a small, spreading Broadleaf tree that fights as a supportive canopy plant: it heals itself and its bench, chips the enemy back row, and stands behind real tree armor. It is native across East Asia, Oceania, and South Asia and invasive in Eastern North America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer that shores up your bench or as an invasive attacker. It is a solid, patient support tree rather than a heavy hitter.
Its starter attack, Deathshadow, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 26 damage as a native and 27 as an invasive while also nicking the foe's bench. The free once-per-battle ability, Gap Capture, arrives at level 25: Takes the fallen giant's light: +5 ATK, kept for the match. It is a strong mid-fight mend. The advanced attack, Deadfall, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (42 native / 43 invasive) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your snowbells 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.
Snowbell keeps two always-on traits. From the level 10 riser it carries Mycorrhiza, which heals a benched ally each turn — but it fires only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip trickle of support, not a steady drip. At the level 68 riser it adds Network, which projects a Sun overshield from the bench onto whatever plant is active, the classic canopy-tree buff. Together they make it most useful sitting on your bench, quietly propping up the plant in front. See Abilities.
Snowbell carries no special trait keywords — no thorns, no toxin, no spore chemistry — so nothing punishes an attacker for striking it; it is non-toxic, so nothing chemical bites back either. Its 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 patient support game; as an invasive, offensive gear makes its attacks count.
At level 40 snowbell reads 103 HP as a native and 89 as an invasive, with ATK of 22 native versus 25 invasive — compare the two: the invasive edge is the reason to field it aggressively. DEF is 19, up in the tree band, so it is a real wall next to the soft herbs and grasses — damage is diminishing armor (ATK ÷ (ATK+DEF)), not flat subtraction, so that DEF sharply blunts incoming hits. Its tempo splits across two clocks: turn 1 runs on initiative (51), every turn after on SPD (34); whichever is higher tells the story — a higher SPD means a slow opener that cruises, a higher initiative means a fast start that fades. 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 on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, snowbell swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 40 / 46 ATK, and as a tree its DEF climbs to 41 — a true wall, the payoff of its category. Retreat rises to 33 Sun as it roots in, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature snowbell acts last against almost anything younger. Maturing buys it a wall of armor and steady support; it costs speed.
As a broadleaf tree, snowbell 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 snowbell as a bench anchor: parked behind your active it heals allies on its coin-flip Mycorrhiza and, once matured, shields the front with Network, while its tree armor keeps it alive when it has to step up. As a native it is a fine buffer; as an invasive it hits harder but bleeds its own bench for the privilege, so weigh the Faustian cost. On economy, it is not an edible-part plant, so fertilizer earns no coin bonus — any nutrient instead banks ×1.25 XP, a growth boost that levels it a little faster. It plays as an even-tempo support tree early and leans on its wall as it levels, crossing over around level 27 as a native and 30 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.