Texas Brown

April 17, 2024

Over the weekend Melissa and I finally got around to weeding the front bed under the Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum).  The tree has needed pruning for several years and this year it supplied part of the branches and limbs that made up my hügelkultur beds.  The bed originally held a variety of flowers with a ground cover of creeping phlox (Phlox subulata).  Over the last three years we had tried to transform the bed into an outdoor succulent garden.  I removed the mulch and replaced it with river pebbles.  Melissa planted Hen and chicks (Sempervivum globiferum) along with Agave (Agave americana) and sedum (Sedum acre) the first year.  It all died over the first winter except for some of the sedum.  Melissa tried again the next year and again almost everything died.  Last year I essentially abandoned the bed and stopped weeding by mid-summer, allowing it to be overgrown by grass.  While we still do not know what will ultimately fill the bed, I am not willing to allow it to be an eyesore again this year.  We went out to weed and remove last year’s leaf fall.  In the course of weeding, we came across two small snakes.  I ID’ed them as Texas brown snake.    

When I looked online, I found the Texas brown snake (Storeria dekayi texana), a subspecies of Storeria dekayi, is a nonvenomous snake in the family Colubridae endemic to North America.  The Texas brown ranges from southern Minnesota to eastern Texas and northeastern Mexico.  Both adults and young have reddish brown colored bodies with dark brown spots around the eyes.  These occipital blotches are wider than in other subspecies of Storeria dekayi, the fourth upper labial is usually darkened to a greater extent, and they do not have the anterior temporal shield marked with a black vertical bar or horizontal stripe like the other subspecies.  Adults average 12 inches (30.5 cm) in length but may reach as much as 19 inches (48.3 cm).  In the wild the Texas brown is found in moist woodlands under logs and bark and in urban areas they are often in gardens and flower beds (like mine).  They feed primarily on slugs and earthworms, but also eat insects, spiders, and cricket frogs (genus Acris).  The brood size for the subspecies varies from 3 to 15 snake babies and each of the newborn’s measure from 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 inches (9 to 11.5 cm) in length.

An interesting note about the Texas brown is they are ovoviviparous.  This term describes a type of reproduction that “bridges” egg-laying (oviparous) and live-bearing (viviparous) reproduction.  Ovoviviparous animals possess embryos that develop inside eggs that remain in the mother’s body until they are ready to hatch.  The females bear live young in August and early September.  Each of the young emerges in a fine tissue sac, which after bursting remains attached to the abdomen or belly (ventrum) but is quickly shed.  For live-bearing snakes, the term ‘pups’ is occasionally used to describe their offspring.  However, this term is more commonly used for mammals, and the correct term for live-born snake offspring is ‘juveniles.’  It is important to note that not all live-bearing animals have ‘pups’ as their offspring.  The correct term varies depending on the species.

THOUGHTS:  I am wary when I come across snakes in my garden or flower beds.  I am not a herpetologist (study of amphibians and reptiles) and tend to rely on the rounded head of non-venomous snakes verses the triangular head of venomous snakes.  However, some non-venomous snakes mimic the triangular shape of venomous snakes by flattening their heads to appear more dangerous.  You can also identify venomous snakes by the thin, black, vertical pupils surrounded by a yellow-green eyeball.  This requires you to be in close range and can be a dangerous identification method.  I moved my two Texas brown snakes out of the bed and onto the lawn.  Humans use visual clues to identify potential threats from others as well.  While this may help keep you safe, it may also exclude getting to understand our diversity.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.