The typical pearls on the market include freshwater pearls, seawater pearls, most cultured pearls, and natural pearls that have almost been mined. However, whether refined or natural pearls, the mother shells that give birth to them are nearly the same; in fact, the types of mother shells far exceed the number of our imagination; in addition to the most common ones, there are many we may rarely hear about, below I will introduce how many Pearl producing mother shells.
Freshwater mother shell
There are relatively few types of freshwater mother shells, and they are all bivalves.
Triangular Pearl Mussel
The most used freshwater mother shell is the Triangular Pearl Mussel, which has strong vitality, relatively low requirements for environmental water quality, and a large yield of pearls.
Lake Biwa Pearl Mussel
Lake Biwa, the largest freshwater lake in Japan, has a pearl-rich freshwater mother shell called Lake Biwa Pearl Mussel.
Hybrid Pearl Mussel
The mother pearl mussel produced by the cross between the Lake Biwa Pearl Mussel and the Triangular Pearl Mussel can produce larger freshwater pearls, the hybrid pearl shell.
Cockscomb Pearl Mussel
From the 5th century AD, people found that a similar shape of the freshwater mother shell can produce the shape of Buddha a pearl; when the Buddha is not perfect, it will develop into a popcorn-like shape. According to the shape, this mother shell is called cockscomb Pearl Mussel; cockscomb Pearl Mussel, to produce the Buddha-shaped Pearl, may be related to its secretion of pearl and shell structure.
European Freshwater Pearl Mussel
The European freshwater mother shell is the primary source of freshwater pearls in Europe, and we can find the same freshwater mother shell in Northwest Asia and the northeastern region of North America. This mother shell grows in the freshwater rivers at high latitudes, and the pearls are gleaming.
Washboard Freshwater Pearl Mussel
Washboard freshwater mother shell because its shell pattern resembles the pattern of the washboard named, distributed in the north from Canada to Mexico in the Mississippi River, this mother shell mainly produces button-shaped pearls. It is also the primary source of raw materials for modern pearl culture pearl core.
Seawater mother shell
Seawater mother shells include two categories; the first is the double shell of the pearl shell structure.
Golden Lipped Pearl shell and Silver Lipped Pearl shell
The most common seawater mother shells are the golden and the white lips. These two kinds of mother shells produce the white and golden pearls in the South Ocean pearls. The color of the Pearl comes from the pigment in the mother shell. We can find two female shells in the tropical areas of the eastern Indian Ocean to the western Pacific Ocean; these two female shells can produce large-size pearls, most of the size is about 10-15mm, and more than 15mm is very rare, more than 20mm belong to the collection level.
Black Lipped Pearl shell
The black-lipped pearl shell is the mother of the black Pearl, found in the central Pacific from French Polynesia to Tahiti and Hawaii. The black Pearl has a beautiful green, blue, and rose glow and is one of the most famous sea pearls on the market. Standard sizes range from 8 to 13mm, with exceptions over 13mm rare.
La Paz Pearl shell
La Paz Pearl shell is a relatively recently discovered mother shell. La Paz Pearl shell produces pearls from white to dark gray and even black; some have a blue-green halo. The La Paz Pearl shell is found mainly along the eastern coast of the Pacific Ocean from California to Peru.
Akoya Pearl shell
The shell of Akoya is tiny, so the pearls produced are generally between 2-8mm and 9-10mm. Akoya pearls are scarce and precious, and this Pearl has a very bright luster and unique texture, mainly produced offshore in Japan. High-quality Akoya pearls are called “flower beads,” and the top-quality “flower beads” are called “Tenna,” and the recently very popular “Jinda Ma” are also Akoya pearls with a gray-blue hue. It is worth noting that more than 95% of Akoya pearls on the market are now toned, and non-toned natural Akoya pearls have a high collection value.
Atlantic Pearl shell
Atlantic pearl shells are found in the western Atlantic Ocean from Bermuda north to Florida south to the northern coast of South America and vary in color from pale yellow to white.
Ceylon Pearl shell
Ceylon Pearl shell produces the highest quality and yield of natural seawater pearls, and the natural pearls of the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, India, and Sri Lanka are historically very famous for this type of mother.
Pipi Pearl shell
The name of the Pipi Pearl shell sounds somewhat related to the shrimp; this mother shell is not large, the average size is between 3-5cm, distributed in the vast area from the Indian Ocean to the central Pacific Ocean, producing light yellow pearls, generally smaller in size between 4-5mm.
Penguin Pearl shell
The Penguin pearl shell is the most essential female species of seawater pearls cultured in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan provinces of China, with individual sizes of 8-25cm. Penguin Pearl shell also produces Mabe pearls, that is, semi-circular pearls.
Sterna Pearl shell
The Sterna Pearl shell is distributed from California in the north to Peru in the south of the east coast of the Pacific Ocean; the color of the pearls produces blue and rose tones, and the size of the larger pearls is between 11 and 15mm. Most of the oval pearls are rarely round.
Fan Pearl mussel
We can find fan mussels in the Mediterranean Sea. This shell is shaped like an ear or a fan blade.
Hard Shell Clam
The clams are found in the waters of eastern Canada as far as Florida. The shells are tough and have beautiful purple-red edges. The pearls they produce have a purple-red tint.
Edible Oyster
Oyster mother shell is the oyster we eat every day. Most of the pearls produced by raw oyster mother shells are white in color and do not have an excellent luster. They are not particularly precious pearls.
Blue shell
A common seafood ingredient, blue mussels grown in cold waters near the poles of the globe occasionally produce pearls, which may be dark gray or a touch of purple, giving a pearlescent feel.
Giant Clam
We can find giant clam beads from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. They are white and have beautiful markings similar to flame markings. Some merchants even sell large clam beads as conch pearls. However, the texture of large clam beads is somewhat translucent, and the porcelain quality of conch pearls is different.
In addition to the double-shell mother shells, there are some single-shell mother shells, mainly conch, abalone, and several others. At present, there are mainly four kinds of conch mother-of-pearl, all of which cannot be obtained through artificial cultivation, so they are entirely natural pearls:
Queen Conch
Queen Conch: this variety is the most precious and beautiful conch pearl; the conch pearl mentioned on the market at present refers to this kind of Pearl from the Caribbean Sea with pink, pink, purple, orange, and white, while there is a charming flame pattern of unique characteristics of the Pearl, the past few years the conch pearl production has further declined, the price has risen.
Coconut conch
The coconut conch is found in the South China Sea from Vietnam to Singapore and Malaysia. The conch is spotted yellow or yellow and black. The Pearl produced is called Melo Pearl. The Melo Pearl is more extensive and varies in color from orange to white. The Melo Pearl also has a whirlpool pattern.
Horse Conch
Horse Conch is another conch pearl distributed in the southeastern United States to the northeastern Mexico Sea; the Pearl produced is less beautiful than the large conch, often darker in color, has no flame pattern, and has little commercial value.
Whelk Conch
We can find whelks on the east coast of the United States, and occasionally, very irregular pearls are found in this conch. The color is maroon red, and the commercial value is not significant.
Two main types of abalone produce pearls:
Green Abalone
We can find Green abalone in the waters of California, USA. It can produce abalone pearls similar in color to the shell of abalone.
New Zealand Large abalone
The New Zealand large abalone is an individual giant unique to New Zealand. In rare cases, we can find this large abalone to produce a beautiful green abalone pearl with beautiful color and halo.
