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Tsutarja is a reptilian Grass-type Pokémon. Most of its body is green in coloration, while it has a cream-colored underside. A yellow stripe runs down the length of its back and tail, and it also has yellow markings around its large eyes. Yellow, curved structures protrude from its shoulders and bend backwards. These structures resemble leaves or small wings and give Tsutarja the appearance of wearing a collar. In spite of being snake-like in appearance, it has fully-developed limbs. Its slender arms are the same green color as the rest of its body and have three fingers, while its tiny feet match its underside in coloration and have no digits whatsoever. It has a large, palmate leaf with three prongs on the end of its tail.
Tsutarja and its fellow Black and White starters were first revealed as silhouettes on the May 9, 2010 episode of Pokémon Sunday. They were later revealed in full in the June 2010 issue of CoroCoro.
Tsutarja is likely based on Opheodrys aestivus, more commonly known as the rough green snake or green grass snake, a non-venomous species native to North America. The Pokémon's combination of snake- and lizard-like features is also similar to that of the real-life skink group of lizards.
Name origin
Tsutarja's name is possibly derived from ツタ tsuta, Japanese ivy, and 蛇 ja, snake.
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.
