The Red Phase Wins

Gordy Johnston and I began our Massachusetts-to-Florida jaunts in the mid-1950s. Like many other herpers who we knew, our principal interest was in the constricting snakes (the lampropeltine species), but we were also very fond of the big, bellicose somber, green water snakes that were to be found foraging and basking in and along the borrow canal* that paralleled the old Tamiami Trail. Although the green water snakes were the dominant species, Florida water snakes and eastern mud snakes were also commonly encountered.

The term “green” can impart many visions, often erroneous, to those of us familiar with the vivid greens of green snakes and green lizards. However, when the term “green” is applied to Nerodia floridana, there are times when one must actually question the validity of the common name.

Young green water snakes are green: dingy olive green, but green. With growth this color may darken until on some aged examples the ground color is such a dark blackish-green that you must use your imagination to perceive the green at all. Over the years these dark colors are those I had come to associate with this species. Despite the fact that the field guides stated that green water snakes may also be brownish, that was a color I was not yet familiar with.

It was researcher Walt Meshaka who first mentioned the finding of brownish green water snakes in southern Florida to me. And, he continued, he had seen red ones also.

Red? A green water snake clad in scales of red? That thought had never entered my mind. But it was because of that conversation that my search for a red green water snake began and continued until a few years ago when, lo!, on a herping trip to the southern peninsula I found both brownish examples and one red one as well. Success was sweet!

And I can unequivocally state that the finding of the latter has done much to change my perception of the Florida green water snake. Green can be beautiful, especially when it is red.

More photos under the jump...

*A borrow canal is the excavation left when the material is used in another area, in this case as the roadbed for the Tamiami Trail.

Author, photographer, and columnist Richard Bartlett is one of the most prolific writers on herpetological subjects in the 20th century. With hundreds of books and articles to their credit, Richard and his wife Pat have spent over four decades documenting reptiles both in the field and in captivity. For a list of their current titles, please visit their page in our bookstore.