Freshwater Pearls

Unlike saltwater oyster pearls, a breed of special pearls grows in mussels in freshwater ponds, lakes and rivers. The most common and prized of these mollusks is the Hyriopsis Cumingior triangle shell, a single specimen of which might produce a hearty harvest of up to 40 pearls at once. Generally cultured by a process called tissue nucleation, in which a tiny piece of mantle from another mollusk is inserted to seed the growth of a pearl, the shape of the resulting pearl is generally not the classic, perfectly round sample, but rather each uniquely elliptical.

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