Ulmus alata
A native-only broadleaf tree that anchors the bench — healing a benched ally and, late, shielding your active — while trading slowly in a straight fight.
Winged elm is a slow, sturdy Broadleaf tree built to prop up the bench rather than to duel: it drops mast that chips the enemy bench and lends its allies support. It is native to Eastern North America, and no invasive card exists — the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer for your bench. As a tree it is genuinely tanky, but its damage is unremarkable, so play it as a defensive anchor, not a finisher.
Its starter attack, Raysteal, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 31 damage while also nicking the enemy bench. The free once-per-battle ability, Old-Growth Reaction, arrives at level 25: Centuries of shade — the foe stalls and withers. It is a large mid-fight mend that suits its stalling game. The advanced attack, Root Heave, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (21 native) and casts deep shade that saps the foe. Most of your elms 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.
Winged elm keeps two always-on traits. From the level 10 riser it carries Mycorrhiza at full strength — a bench-support trait that heals a benched ally — but it rides the sustain chance, firing only about 60% of the time, so treat the heal as a coin-flip, not a guarantee. On the level 68 riser it adds Network: while benched, it projects a Sun overshield onto your active, the canopy-tree bench buff. Together these make it far more useful sitting behind a hitter than leading the charge. See Abilities.
Winged elm 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 punishes a hit either. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, general defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium/magnesium amendment for a little extra DEF — reinforces its role as a wall.
At level 40 winged elm reads 121 HP and 23 ATK. DEF is 24, up in the tree band where armor is a genuine wall, so it soaks hits far better than any herb or grass. Its tempo: turn 1 runs on its initiative (51) and every turn after on its SPD (32) — compare the two to see whether it opens fast and fades or starts slow and cruises. Damage against it is diminishing armor (ATK ÷ (ATK+DEF)), not flat subtraction, which is why its high DEF matters so much. Retreat costs 19 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, winged elm climbs to 233 HP and 41 ATK, and as a tree its DEF reaches 54 — a true wall that keeps it hard to dent even at the top of the ladder. Retreat rises to 41 Sun as it roots in, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature elm acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys it durability and bench support; it costs it any hope of striking first.
As a broadleaf tree, winged elm 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 shrugging off its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play winged elm as a native wall and bench engine: park it behind a fragile hitter so its HP cushion, overshield, and Mycorrhiza heal keep the team alive, then let its own slow, tanky attacks grind a long fight. Its damage is modest, so it supports rather than finishes. On economy, it is inedible, so it earns no fertilizer coin bonus — any nutrient you feed it instead banks ×1.25 XP, a steady growth boost. It plays as a slow, durable defender whose bulk only grows more decisive with level, crossing over around level 23 — and 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.