Epioblasma florentina (I. Lea, 1857)

Yellow blossom pearly mussel, Yellow blossom

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Synonyms: Unio florentinus I. Lea, 1857; Dysnomia (Capsaeformis) florentina (I. Lea, 1857); Dysnomia (Pilea) florentina (I. Lea, 1857); Dysnomia florentina (I. Lea, 1857); Dysnomia florentina florentina (I. Lea, 1857); Epioblasma florentina florentina (I. Lea, 1857); Margaron (Unio) florentinus (I. Lea, 1857); Plagiola (Torulosa) florentina (I. Lea, 1857); Plagiola florentina (I. Lea, 1857); Truncilla (Pilea) florentina (I. Lea, 1857); Truncilla florentina (I. Lea, 1857); Unio saccatus Küster, 1862; Unio sacculus Reeve, 1864

See Graf & Cummings (2025) for a more complete taxonomic history.

Conservation Status

Extinct (Bogan, 2000; Régnier et al., 2009; NatureServe, 2014, 2025; Graf & Cummings, 2021, 2025)

Last record: 1967 (Chicago Museum); 1971 (Bogan, 2000)

IUCN RedList status: Extinct

Distribution

Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, USA

Biology & Ecology

Hypodigm

6 specimens are in the Illinois Natural History Survey mollusc [url=http://www.inhs.illinois.edu/animals_plants/mollusk/]collection[/url]:

INHS 20536
INHS 20537
INHS 20538
INHS 20539
INHS 20705
INHS 20706

A 7th specimen simply labelled "Epioblasma florentina" (INHS 17043) is probably also of the nominate (and extinct) subspecies

Media

References

Original scientific description:

Lea, Isaac. (1857). Description of six new species of uniones from Alabama. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 9: 83. [after 31 March 1857, before 7 January 1858]

Other references:

Baillie, J. and Groombridge, B. (eds). (1996). 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. pp. 378. International Union for Conservation of Nature, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

Bogan, Arthur E. (1993). Freshwater bivalve extinctions (Mollusca: Unionoida): A search for causes. American Zoologist 33(6): 599-609. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/33.6.599

Bogan, Arthur E. (Mollusc Specialist Group). (2000). Epioblasma florentina ssp. florentina. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2000: e.T7869A12859637. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2000.RLTS.T7869A12859637.en. Accessed on 04 July 2022.

Bogan, Arthur E. and Parmalee, Paul W. (1983). Tennessee's Rare Wildlife. Volume II: The Mollusks. Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

Burch, J. B. (1975). Freshwater unionacean clams (Mollusca: Pelecypoda) of North America. Malacological Publications: Hamburg, Michigan. 204 pp.

Cicerello, R. R. and Schuster, G. A. (2003). A guide to the freshwater mussels of Kentucky. Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission Scientific and Technical Series 7: 1-62.

Cummings, Kevin S. and Graf, D. L. (2010). Mollusca: Bivalvia, pp. 309-384. In: Thorp, J. H. and Covich, A. P. (eds.). Ecology and Classification of North American Freshwater Invertebrates. 3rd ed. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier.

Frierson, L. S. (1927). A Classified and Annotated Checklist of the North American Niades. Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press. 111 pp.

Gordon, M. E., Kraemer, L. R. and Brown, A. V. (1979). Unionacea of Arkansas: Historical review, checklist, and observations on distributional patterns. Bulletin of the American Malacological Union, Inc. (1979): 31-37.

Graf, Daniel L. and Cummings, Kevin S. (2007). Review of the systematics and global diversity of freshwater mussel species (Bivalvia: Unionoida). Journal of Molluscan Studies 73(4): 291-314. https://doi.org/10.1093/mollus/eym029

Graf, Daniel L. and Cummings, Kevin S. (2021). A ‘big data’ approach to global freshwater mussel diversity (Bivalvia: Unionoida), with an updated checklist of genera and species. Journal of Molluscan Studies 87(1): eyaa034 (36 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1093/mollus/eyaa034

Graf, Daniel L. and Cummings, Kevin S. (2025). The Freshwater Mussels (Unionoida) of the World (and other less consequential bivalves). MUSSEL Project Web Site, https://www.mussel-project.net/. Accessed 30 June 2025.

Groombridge, B. (ed.). (1994). 1994 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

Haag, Wendell R. (2009). Past and future patterns of freshwater mussel extinctions in North America during the Holocene, pp. 107-128. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.

Haag, Wendell R. (2012). North American Freshwater Mussels: Natural History, Ecology, and Conservation. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. xvi + 505 pp., 21 pls.

Haas, F. (1969). Superfamilia Unionacea. Das Tierreich 88: x, 1-663. Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin.

Hilton-Taylor, Craig. (2000). 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

Hopper, G. W., Bucholz, J. R., DuBose, T. P., Fogelman, K. J., Keogh, S. M. et al. (2023). A trait dataset for freshwater mussels of the United States of America. Scientific Data 10: 745 (pp. 1-15). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02635-9

IUCN. (1990). IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

Johnson, R. I. (1978). Systematics and zoogeography of Plagiola (= Dysnomia = Epioblasma), an almost extinct genus of freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae) from middle North America. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 148: 239-321.

Johnson, R. I. (1980). Zoogeography of North American Unionacea (Mollusca: Bivalvia) north of the maximum Pleistocene glaciation. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 149(2): 77-189.

Lea, Isaac. (1870). A Synopsis of the Family of Naïades. Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea. 184 pp.

Lydeard, C., Garner, J. T., Hartfield, P. and Williams, James D. (1999). Freshwater mussels in the Gulf Region: Alabama. Gulf of Mexico Science 17(2): 125-134.

MolluscaBase eds. (2025). MolluscaBase. Epioblasma florentina (I. Lea, 1857). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=857454 on 2025-06-30

Morrison, J. P. E. (1942). Preliminary report on mollusks found in the shell mounds of the Pickwidk Landing basin in the Tennessee River valley. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 129: 339-392.

NatureServe. (2014). NatureServe Explorer: An online encyclopedia of life [web application]. Version 7.1. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. Available http://explorer.natureserve.org. (Accessed: January 27, 2015).

NatureServe. (2025). Epioblasma florentina: Yellow Blossom. NatureServe Network Biodiversity Location Data accessed through NatureServe Explorer [web application]. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. Available at: https://explorer.natureserve.org/ [Accessed 30 June 2025]

Ortmann, A. E. (1912). Notes upon the families and genera of the najades. Annals of the Carnegie Museum 8: 222-365.

Ortmann, A. E. (1918). The nayades (freshwater mussels) of the Upper Tennessee drainage. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 57(6): 521-626.

Ortmann, A. E. (1924). The naiad-fauna of Duck River in Tennessee. American Midland Naturalist 9(1): 18-62.

Ortmann, A. E. (1925). The naiad-fauna of the Tennessee River system below Walden Gorge. American Midland Naturalist 9(8): 321-372. https://doi.org/10.2307/2992763

Parmalee, P. W. and Bogan, Arthur E. (1998). The Freshwater Mussels of Tennessee. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press. 328 pp.

Reeve, L. A. and Sowerby, G. B. II. (1864-1868). Monograph of the genus Unio. In: Conchologia Iconica, or illustrations of the shells of molluscous animals, vol. 16, pls 1-96 and unpaginated text. L. Reeve, London.

Régnier, Claire, Fontaine, Benoît and Bouchet, Philippe. (2009). Not Knowing, Not Recording, Not Listing: Numerous Unnoticed Mollusk Extinctions. Conservation Biology 23(5): 1214-1221. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01245.x  [Appendix S1-S2]

Simpson, Charles Torrey. (1900). Synopsis of the naiades, or pearly fresh-water mussels. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 22(1205): 501-1044, pl. 18.

Simpson, Charles Torrey. (1914). A descriptive catalogue of the naiades, or pearly fresh-water mussels. Parts I-III. Detroit, Michigan: Bryant Walker. 1540 pp.

Stansbery, D. H. (1970). American Malacological Union Symposium: Rare and Endangered Mollusks: 2. Eastern Freshwater Mollusks (I) The Mississippi and St. Lawrence Systems. Malacologia 10(1): 9-22.

Turgeon, D. D., Bogan, A. E., Coan, E. V., Emerson, W. K., Lyons, W. G. et al. (1988). Common and Scientific Names of Aquatic Invertebrates from the United States and Canada: Mollusks. American Fisheries Society Special Publication (16). 277 pp.

Turgeon, D. D., Quinn, J. F., Jr., Bogan, A. E., Coan, E. V., Hochberg, F. G., Lyons, W. G., Mikkelsen, P. M., Neves, R. J., Roper, C. F. E., Rosenberg, G., Roth, B., Scheltema, A., Thompson, F. G., Vecchione, M. and Williams, J. D. (1998). Common and scientific names of aquatic invertebrates from the United States and Canada: Mollusks. 2nd Edition. American Fisheries Society Special Publication 26, Bethesda, Maryland: 526 pp.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). (1985). Recovery plan for tubercled-blossom pearly mussel Epioblasma (= Dysnomia) torulosa torulosa (Rafinesque, 1820), turgid-blossom pearly mussel Epioblasma (= Dysnomia) turdigula (Lea, 1858), and yellow-blossom pearly mussel Epioblasma (= Dysnomia) florentina florentina (Lea, 1857). U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Atlanta, Georgia. 39 pp.

Wells, S. M., Pyle, R. M. and Collins, N. M. (compilers). (1983). The IUCN Invertebrate Red Data Book. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

Williams, James D., Bogan, Arthur E., Butler, Robert S., Cummings, Kevin S., Garner, Jeffrey T., Harris, John L., Johnson, Nathan A. and Watters, G. Thomas. (2017). A revised list of the freshwater mussels (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Unionida) of the United States and Canada. Freshwater Mollusk Biology and Conservation 20: 33-58.

Williams, James D., Bogan, Arthur E. and Garner, Jeffrey T. (2008). Freshwater mussels of Alabama and the Mobile Basin in Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. xv + 908 pp.

Williams, James D., Warren, M. L., Cummings, Kevin S., Harris, J. L. and Neves, R. J. (1993). Conservation status of freshwater mussels of the United States and Canada. Fisheries 18(9): 6-22. https://doi.org/10.1577/1548-8446(1993)018%3C0006:CSOFMO%3E2.0.CO;2

Wright, B. H. (1888). Check List of North American Unionidae and Other Fresh Water Bivalves. Portland, Oregon: Dorne & Cook, Printers. 8 pp. (un paginated).

http://naturalsciences.org/sites/default/files/files/documents/research-collections/Bogan_TN_Endangered_Mollusks.pdf

https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/10368/epioblasma-florentina-yellow-blossom

https://www.extinction.photo/species/yellow-blossom-pearly-mussel/

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