Gulf Hammock Rat Snakes are distinct looking when compared to other Yellow/Gray intergrades. One distinguishing trait is that they are often born with stripes. There are Yellow/Gray intergrades over a wide area from Florida to SC. The coastal lowland areas of Levy County, FL (everything west of the sand ridge) are pretty much the exclusive domain of the Gulf Hammock Rat Snake. I have never found a pure looking Gray or Yellow in that zone. South of Levy County there's a small zone in Northern Citrus County where you can get both Yellows and Gulf Hammocks. All the rat snakes I've found North of Levy County have looked like pure Grays.

There is some disagreement as to what a Greenish Rat Snake is. I've heard it said that the term is only correctly applied when used to describe the darker phase of Yellow Rat Snake in the northern parts of their range. Pure Yellows hug the coast along a narrow strip all the way up to Central NC. I have found them in the very northern part of their range and they do not look very different from the Yellow Rat Snakes I've found in Hernando and Sumter Counties in Central FL. A little inland from the coast you get real Black/Yellow intergrades, which are also referred to as Greenish Rats.

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