Harmless · Native to the United States

Rough green snake

Opheodrys aestivus (Linnaeus, 1766)

Also called rough greensnake, green snake
Data updated October 2026

Slender bright green rough green snake stretched along a leafy branch — Fig. 1 — Adult in shrubs, where its plain green body blends into the leaves.

Close view of a rough green snake's head showing a large eye and yellow lips and chin — Fig. 2 — Large eyes and a yellowish chin and lips.

At a glance

A thin, leaf-green snake that lives in shrubs and small trees, usually near water. It eats insects and spiders, hunts by day and sleeps coiled on branches at night. It is gentle and almost never bites.

Identification

This is a long, very slender snake that is plain bright green on top with no pattern at all. The belly, chin and lips are yellow, cream or whitish. The tail is long and thin and can make up nearly half the snake’s length. Young snakes look like adults but are a paler green. Within its range it is usually the only bright green snake around; the smooth green snake, a smaller cousin with smooth scales, replaces it in the Appalachians and the Northeast.

01Plain green back. Uniform leaf green from head to tail, with no spots or stripes.
02Keeled scales. Each scale has a small ridge down the middle, which gives the skin a slightly rough feel and the snake its name.
03Turns blue after death. The yellow pigment fades within hours, so a dead rough green snake often looks blue or even blackish.

Size

Most adults measure 22 to 32 inches (56–81 cm). The largest on record reached about 46 inches (116 cm). Females average longer and heavier than males, but males have relatively longer tails. Hatchlings are about 8 to 10 inches (21–25 cm) long.

Range & habitat

Rough green snake coiled among vines and leaves at the edge of a pond — Fig. 3 — Shrubs and vine tangles along water are prime rough green snake habitat.

Rough green snakes range across the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, from the Pine Barrens of New Jersey west to central Texas and south through all of Florida. In Missouri they occur across the southern two-thirds of the state. They are common in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain but absent from high mountain elevations. They live in dense shrubs, vines and small trees, especially along streams, rivers, ponds and lakes, and also use open forest, forest edges, old fields and coastal thickets. They sometimes turn up in towns.

State guides: Texas · Florida

Diet & predators

Rough green snakes eat almost nothing but invertebrates picked from leaves and branches. Hairless caterpillars, crickets, grasshoppers and spiders are the staples, along with katydids, beetles, dragonflies, wood roaches and land snails. Because insects are small, they must eat more often than snakes that hunt mice. That appetite for leaf-eating caterpillars makes them useful neighbors.

Feeds on

Caterpillars
Crickets and grasshoppers
Spiders and harvestmen
Dragonflies, beetles and land snails

Preyed on by

Hawks
Blue jays and loggerhead shrikes
Kingsnakes
Domestic and feral cats

Green caterpillar feeding on a leaf — Prey — caterpillars.

Blue jay perched on a branch — Predator — blue jay.

Behavior & seasons

This may be the most tree-loving snake in the eastern US. It is active by day and spends most of its time resting still among leaves, often 3 to 13 feet off the ground, and it sways gently with the branches in a breeze. When approached it usually freezes or slips deeper into the foliage. It is docile and rarely bites; a newly caught snake may gape to show its dark mouth lining or release musk, but this is mostly bluff. About an hour before sunset it settles in to sleep coiled near the tips of branches. It is also a capable swimmer.

In Missouri it is active from late March through October, with peaks in spring and early fall; farther south it may be out in most months, with a quiet spell from December to February. In cool weather it comes down to shelter under logs, rocks and debris, and it spends winter in deep leaf litter, rotten logs and stumps, or underground.

Reproduction

Rough green snakes lay eggs. Mating takes place in spring and sometimes in fall. In June and July females come down from the trees to lay a single clutch of 1 to 14 eggs, usually about 6, in rotting logs and stumps, under loose bark, under rocks or boards, or in deep leaf litter. Some females in Arkansas and South Carolina have laid eggs in tree cavities up to about 10 feet high and returned to the same cavity in later years. Most eggs hatch in August and September. Males can mature in about a year; females take two to three years. Wild snakes may live up to about 8 years.

Conservation

The species is not federally listed and is generally common across most of its range. It is protected throughout Georgia. Observers report declines in some areas, including southern Florida and parts of Virginia. Likely causes include pesticides and herbicides that reduce its insect prey, road deaths, mowing, loss of shrubby habitat along wetlands and forest edges, and predation by pet and feral cats. Large numbers are also taken from the wild for the pet trade.

In captivity

Rough green snakes are sold as pets, but most come from the wild, and many wild-caught animals do poorly after collection and shipping. They are delicate, stress easily and are best treated as display animals rather than pets to handle. Collecting them is not allowed where they are protected, such as in Georgia, so check your state’s rules first.

Because they live in shrubs, they need a roomy, tall enclosure filled with branches and live or artificial plants to climb and hide in, a warm basking light, fresh drinking water at all times and regular misting. They eat soft-bodied insects and spiders, such as crickets, moths and smooth caterpillars, not mice. Kept well, some live 15 years or more.

Keep reading

Green anole

North American racer

Snakes in Florida

Sources

Data updated October 2026 · How we build these pages