Corn Snake morph

Recessive

Lavender

Corn Snake (Pantherophis guttatus)

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What Lavender looks like

Purple/gray coloration

Removes red and yellow pigment and replaces them with lavender, pink-gray, and silver-purple tones. One of the most visually striking corn snake mutations. Background color becomes silver-gray with lavender/pink undertones; saddle marks are lavender to pink-purple with dark outlines that may fade with age. Eyes are typically dark but may appear slightly lighter. Animals tend to lighten and become more lavender as they age. Hatchlings may appear quite dark gray with pink tones that develop more clearly over the first year. When combined with Amelanistic, produces Opal (Amel + Lavender): a pink-white to pearl-white animal with very soft lavender or pink saddle marks and red/pink eyes. Highly sought after in the hobby.

How to identify it: Silver-gray to lavender-pink background; saddle marks lavender/purple rather than red-brown. Dark outlines on saddles. Eyes dark. The lavender/purple tones intensify and clarify with age. Best distinguished from Anery morphs by the pinkish-lavender (not silver-gray) background tone.

How Lavender is inherited

Lavender follows a recessive inheritance pattern, carried on the Lavender allele (locus Lav).

What does het lavender mean?

Because Lavender is recessive, an animal needs two copies of the allele to show the trait visually. An animal with a single copy is called het lavender (heterozygous). A het animal looks normal but carries the gene, so pairing two het lavender animals produces, on average, one in four visual lavender offspring.

Combo morphs with Lavender

  • Opal

    Amelanistic + Lavender combination. One of the most visually striking corn snake combos.

Predict Lavender pairingsOpen the Corn Snake calculator preloaded with a het x het pairing.Identify a Corn Snake morphUse the morph identifier to match photos to visually identifiable traits.

Track your Lavender projects

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