Tsuga dumosa
A native-only conifer that is the bulkiest and slowest card in this batch, but which -- unusually -- dropped both the canopy Network overshield and Photosynthesis.
Himalayan hemlock is a conifer card native to East Asia and South Asia and introduced nowhere, so it plays purely as a native buffer -- there is no attacker form, and the page reads through the native (or neutral base) profile. Its category places it in the Specialist succession group (see categories).
Numbers are read at the snapshot level 40, where every slot is unlocked.
The starter, Limb Lash, unlocks at Lv 1 and costs 2 Sun for 36 -- the hardest-hitting starter in this batch: Two lashes from a heavy limb. The free once-per-battle ability, Terpene Fog, unlocks at Lv 25 and deals no damage: A haze of volatile resin — the foe is saturated and stalls. The advanced attack, Sappy Ending, unlocks at Lv 40, costs 6 Sun for 27: Drowns the foe in sap and takes it back. No move carries the initiative rider. See moves.
Himalayan hemlock holds a working trait on each riser. Xylem Tracheids (level 10) are cavitation-resistant conducting cells, and they take a flat 3 damage off every direct hit. Serotinous Cones (level 68) only open in fire — mechanically, when this tree is knocked out every living enemy loses 4% of its own max HP, so it takes something with it on the way down. See Abilities.
It holds no Thorns, Toxin or Unpalatable contact trait, so attackers take no recoil for striking it. As a conifer it already has real category armor, and a Calcium/Magnesium amendment (flat DEF) hardens it further. Because it does not carry Network, it is not one of the bench Sun-overshield providers. Its growth habit is not a climber, so it is not Moss Pole eligible. See field gear.
At 40 it reads 140 HP -- the highest in this batch -- on 19 ATK and a firm 19 DEF, with retreat at 18 Sun. It is the slowest card here on both clocks: opening initiative 28 and an even lower sustained SPD 20 make it a slow starter and a slow cruiser, so it will usually act last. As a native it carries a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield (though not the Sun overshield, since it lacks Network). It is invasive nowhere, so it never pays bench self-damage and concedes no extra prizes. See stats.
Fully grown it hardens into a wall: HP climbs toward 276 and DEF, sourced from a conifer's wood density, rises to 43 -- far past any herb or shrub here. ATK reaches 34, retreat rises to 39 Sun as it roots down, and the already-slow inverted tempo sinks to roughly its 1% floor. Maturing buys it heavy armor and bulk at the cost of ever being fast.
As a conifer it is a Specialist: ×1.5 into Competitors (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs, broadleaf trees), resisted to ×0.667 by Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), neutral into other Specialists and the Weird group. See weaknesses & resistances.
This is the tank of the batch: high HP and conifer DEF make it a strong native wall that soaks hits while your team works, and it opens with a genuinely hard starter. Its drawbacks are speed -- it acts last almost every turn -- and the loss of the usual conifer support kit, so benching it gives your active an HP overshield but no Sun overshield or bench heal. It is a good front-line anchor rather than a support piece. It is not edible, so fertilizer banks the ×1.25 XP boost rather than coins. On the total-power gallery, as a bulky conifer it is power-favored from very early (about Lv 7) -- its size is large even young -- which edge dominates, not a reason to avoid leveling.
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.