Tithonia diversifolia
A hard-hitting shrub with a wide invasive damage jump that hardens at low HP and taunts from level 68, playing either arena role.
Mexican Sunflower is a tall Shrub that fights as an aggressive mid-weight. It is native across Eastern and Western North America and South America and invasive across Africa, East Asia, Oceania, and South Asia, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. Its invasive form hits notably harder than its native one. See nativity.
Its starter attack, Frère Brer, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 29 damage native and 33 invasive as a plain hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Chaparral Climax, comes in at level 25: Owns the dry hillside: heal 60% and +4 ATK. It mends the plant. The advanced attack, Thicket, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (34 native / 38 invasive) and pins the target so it cannot retreat. Most of your plants sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. No move carries an initiative rider. See moves.
Mexican sunflower carries one working trait per riser. Marcescence (level 10) hardens the spent growth into +4 DEF while at or below half HP. Sapromyophily (level 68) makes this loud, tall invader the obvious target: the engine's single-victim picks resolve onto it. See Abilities.
Mexican Sunflower carries no trait keywords and is non-toxic, so it shows no hazard ring and gives attackers no contact recoil or poison. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear helps it hold; as an invasive, offensive gear presses its damage advantage.
At level 40 Mexican Sunflower reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 22 native versus 35 invasive — a wide gap (native ATK 22 to invasive ATK 32) that makes the invasive form its real weapon. DEF is 10, mid-to-low for the shrub band, so it takes hits with only modest armor. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on its low initiative (33) and every turn after on its higher SPD (45), so it is out-paced early and relentless afterward. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench HP overshield; as an invasive it draws higher ATK from its trait line, pays Faustian self-damage to its bench, and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, Mexican Sunflower swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 38 / 71 ATK, while its DEF climbs to 20 — a shrub earns a moderate wall, better than a soft herb but short of a tree. Retreat rises to 23 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature plant acts late.
As a shrub, Mexican Sunflower is in the Competitor succession 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 off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play Mexican Sunflower as an invasive attacker that leans on its wide ATK jump and steady cruise speed to grind an opponent down, or as a native buffer whose cushion and overshield support a bulkier ally. With no ability its ceiling is only fair, but the damage is respectable. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks x1.25 XP rather than coins. It fights as a fast cruiser until about level 25, after which its bulk takes over; keep leveling it.
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.