Looking to ID a snake found in my backyard where a lot of young children play. Characteristics: Red - resembled that color of those red lava rocks. May have had some black lines in a very small pattern. Specimen was small. It was about a third the size of a pencil in circumference and about 6 to 8 inches long. Looked like a worm but the color was more intense. Was coiled when we encountered it. When it moved away from us from the way it moved it was definitely a snake. It zigzagged away. Any one have an idea of what kind it might be? If this is not the right webplace can you provide my some direction? Thanks! - David

You might try the Snakes of Texas page, maintained by the Texas Natural Science Center at UT Austin.  It's very useful for identifying snakes of Texas.

If your snake was red or red and black only, it probably isn't venomous. The only venomous snake in TX with red is the coral snake, which is brightly colored red, yellow, and black, with the red next to the yellow, as opposed to the milk snake and the scarlet snake, which have the red next to the black:

NOTE THAT THIS DOES NOT WORK IN MEXICO.

Did you perhaps have a ribbon snake? I believe they can be quite small.

If you can get some photos, it would really help--someone in the department who's a snake expert will undoubtedly recognize it. Some of the corn snakes and rat snakes can be pretty brightly colored. They'll bite if mishandled, but they're not venomous.

If you can rule out local venomous snakes, it sounds as if you have a good opportunity to teach children about snakes--how to know the venomous ones, how not to kill the harmless ones, how to find an adult if you are not sure, etc.

Cheers,
Monique Reed

Hello,
My name is Karen. Our family lives in Arizona and we have an unusual plant growing in our pot. This isn't a joke. We have asked everyone we know about this plant and no one, around here anyway, has seen anything like it. We have tried looking it up in plant books but can't seem to locate it.
Will you please help us identify the plant?
I have purchased a palm tree from a near by Home Depot store. The tree is growing well. I have had the palm tree for about 8 months in the same pot with the same soil and we did not have anything growing from the pot all this time. However, a very large plant is growing out of the same pot now.
The strange thing is, my family and I went hiking into a lava cave in Flagstaff Arizona and brought a rock home with us. This rock is very porous. I placed the rock in the pot with the palm tree, cause it looked kind of cool there. Shortly after that, is when this new plant started growing. I am not sure if this is related to our plant or not but it seems to be too coincidental.
The history of the lava cave says it to be thousands of years old. There are no animals, creatures of any kind, or plants of any type living or growing inside the cave. The cave is immensely dark and dry and has been for thousands of years.

The new plant produces extremely tiny white flowers. Each entire flower is about 1mm in size with about 5 petals on each flower. The flowers turn into small dark blackish/purplish/bluish round berry like fruit. The berries are umbel, if I have this right, each berry comes from it's own stem but the stems all connect into one stem, which in turn connects to the main plant stem.
The leaves are medium green and about four inches in length and 3 inches in width. Each leaf comes from the stem of another leaf.
The lines in each leaf come straight from the leaf stem to the end of the leaf. There are line braches off the main branch line evenly from each side. Then there are more line branching from those lines evenly from side to side to the edge of the leaf.
The stems are green and not wood like. They can be bent very easily. They are only about 2-3 cm in diameter.
The plant has been growing quite rapidly from my pot. The plant is now four foot tall and about the same width in less than 3 months.

I hope this is make sense. It really has our family puzzled. If you could help us we would greatly appreciate it. Thanking you in advance for all your cooperation!
Sincerely Karen and family.

Dear Karen and family,
It is a Solanum (Nightshade), probably part of the big, messy Solanum americanum/ptychanthum species complex. It's a common weed and could have been present as a dormant seed in the purchased plant, or a seed could have been blown or carried to the pot. The plant's extremely poisonous if eaten, so you may want to eliminate it.

Monique Reed