Medium-sized (up to 18 cm CL) turtle with yellow stripes on head and olive to black carapace. Marginal scutes with vertical bars (bellii) or horizontal to curved markings (marginata); red midback stripe broad (dorsalis), narrow (marginata), or absent (bellii). Plastron: yellow, red, or orange; dark markings broad, laterally branching, and covering most of plastron (bellii); elongated and confined to midplastral seam (marginata); or absent (dorsalis). Extensive intergradation among subspecies produces great variation within state.