Margaritifera
The Margaritifera mussels is used to produce freshwater pearls.
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P. margaritifera
Pearl-producing oyster with black, white, or golden colored "lips," producing nacre similar in color to its "lips." The black-lip variety is used in Tahiti and other parts of French Polynesia to produce natural black cultured pearls.
Pinctada Margaritifera: The industry term for the saltwater mollusks that produces Tahitian cultured pearls.
The Pinctada Margaritifera pearl oyster is a mollusk that feeds on plankton. It is cultivated in the lagoons of French Polynesia. Tahiti cultured black pearls are formed inside the pearl oyster.
The Pinctada Margaritifera "Black-Lipped" Oyster
Tahitian Pearls are found in a mollusk that is native to the islands of French Polynesia. This bivalve mollusk is called the "black-lipped" oyster, or Pinctada Margaritifera cumingi.
They are produced by the large, black-lipped pearl oyster Pinctada margaritifera (also called the Tahitian black pearl oyster), a mollusk found in the tropical Indo-Pacific Ocean.
Tahitian legend says that Te Ufi (pinctada margaritifera) was given to man by Oro, the god of peace and fertility, who came to earth on a rainbow and offered the pearl to the beautiful princess Bora Bora as a sign of eternal love.
Above all in French Polynesia, Tahitian pearls have been cultivated since the 1960s inside the black-lipped pearl-bearing bivalve Pinctada margaritifera.
Tahitian pearls are produced by the large black-lipped variety of the Pinctada Margaritifera oyster. Although they are frequently referred to as black pearls, Tahitian pearls come in a wide array of dark purple, green, gray, silver and blueish hues.
Layer: One layer of nacre = 1 micron approximately. The Polynesian Pinctada Margaritifera oyster secretes 3 or 4 concentric layers a day. In two years, the layer will be up to 2.5mm thick, whereas the Akoya oyster will only secrete 1 mm.
The best known of the first type is the so-called pearl oyster (meleagrina margaritifera). The pearl mussel of fresh water streams is of the second type (uniomargarifer).
Black mother of pearl is most likely cut from a special black-lipped mollusk known as the pinctada margaritifera.
Peacock Pearl
Peacock pearls are a type of black pearls that are dark-green (almost black). These pearls (like all black pearls) are produced by the oyster Pinctada margaritifera.
Tahitian pearls are cultivated in the rare, black-lipped Pinctada margaritifera oyster in an area around French Polynesia. In spite of the name, Tahiti has no pearl farms. The country is instead the commercial hub for this type of pearl.
 See also: Pearls, Pearl, Water, Natural, Color
  
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