U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Winged mapleleaf fragosa What is the Winged Mapleleaf? The winged mapleleaf is an endangered . Endangered species are and plants that are in danger of becoming extinct. Threatened species are animals and plants that are likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future. Identifying, protecting and restoring endangered and threatened species is the primary objective of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s endangered species program.

Appearance - Winged mapleleaf grow up to four inches long. They have thick shells that are greenish The endangered winged mapleleaf is a freshwater mussel found in only five brown, chestnut, or dark brown in populations in , , , and Oklahoma. color. Their shell, like that of a few quality water. In the past, it may fish which are called host fish. other native freshwater mussel also have been found in large rivers Known host fish for the winged species, has several rows of bumps and streams on mud, mud-covered mapleleaf are channel and blue running from the hinge (umbo) to the gravel, and gravel bottoms. catfish. Glochidia continue growing edge of the shell. The patterns of on the fish and transform into these rows of bumps, or tubercles, Feeding Habits - To feed, the winged juveniles, then they drop off and help biologists differentiate this from mapleleaf siphons in water and land on the river bottom where they other, similar mussel species. Faint filters out food particles. It is mature into adults. rays are visible in small shells. thought that most of the particles that are actually used as food are Range - When the recovery plan was The lifespan of the winged mapleleaf phyto- and zooplankton – tiny approved in 1997 only one population is not known, but the oldest known organisms that drift with river of winged mapleleaf was known to be individual in the St. Croix is 22 years currents. extant – in the St. Croix River on the old. border between Minnesota and Reproduction - Winged mapleleaf . Since then four reproduction is similar to many other Why is the winged mapleleaf additional populations have been freshwater mussels. The males shed endangered? found: in the Saline River and sperm into the water. Eggs, on the Habitat Fragmentation and Small in Arkansas, in the gills of females, are fertilized when Population Size - The five remaining Little River in Oklahoma, and in the sperm is collected as the female populations are largely or entirely Bourbeuse River in Missouri. siphons in water. After fertilization, isolated from one another and appear Additional surveying is needed to the females store the developing to be highly differentiated genetically assess and monitor the status and larvae (glochidia) in their gills until (Hemmingsen 2008). Each may distribution of each population. they’re expelled into the river possess important local adaptations. current. These glochidia must attach Propagation of winged mapleleaf and Habitat - Winged mapleleaf are found to the gills or fins of a fish to its reintroduction into historically in riffles with clean gravel, sand, or complete development. Glochidia can occupied river reaches could reduce rubble bottoms and in clear, high only develop on certain species of the impact to the species’ genetic diversity that might result from the destabilize river corridors and loss of endangered and threatened loss of any of the remaining increase runoff of harmful species and our nation’s plant and populations. In addition, it may be pesticides, chemicals, and sediment. diversity. Tell others about an important tool to increase the what you have learned. viability of one or more populations. What is being done to prevent The Service and its partners have extinction of the winged Join - Join a conservation group or not yet demonstrated the ability to volunteer at a local Refuge, nature produce winged mapleleaf in the mapleleaf? center, or zoo. numbers that would be necessary to Listing - The winged mapleleaf was effectively reintroduce the species. added to the U.S. List of Protect – Protect water quality by Significant progress toward this end Endangered and Threatened Wildlife minimizing use of lawn chemicals has been made recently, however, and Plants on July 22, 1991. It is (i.e., fertilizers, herbicides, and and several agencies and scientists illegal to harm, harass, collect, or kill insecticides), recycling used car oil, are now cooperating to establish the mussel. Permits can be obtained and properly disposing of paint and successful protocols. from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife other toxic household products. If Service for scientific studies or take you boat, do whatever you can to Zebra Mussels - Zebra mussels are that is incidental to an otherwise prevent spreading zebra mussels an exotic species of mussel that legal activity. within or between water bodies. threaten freshwater mussels in the watershed. Zebra Recovery Plan - A recovery plan has mussels were inadvertently been prepared that identifies and introduced into North America prioritizes actions that are necessary during the late 1980’s and became to recover this species. established in the lower St. Croix River in 2000. They attach to any Habitat Protection - Xcel Energy, hard surface and breed so which operates a dam just upstream prolifically that they smother or of the only known reproducing otherwise harm native freshwater population of winged mapleleaf, is mussels. It is essential to the coordinating with the Minnesota and conservation of winged mapleleaf Wisconsin DNR’s and the U.S. Fish that zebra mussels are not allowed to & Wildlife Service to insure invade this species’ sole reproducing instream flow levels that protect this population. mussel. In addition, the National Park Service, the states of Land Use Changes - The remaining Minnesota and Wisconsin, the U.S. reproducing population of winged Army Corps of Engineers, and mapleleaf is near the major others are cooperating with the U.S. metropolitan area of Minneapolis and Fish and Wildlife Service to keep St. Paul, Minnesota. As sprawl zebra mussels out of habitat occupied from this urban area continues, more by winged mapleleaf in the St. Croix and more of the St. Croix River River. watershed will be developed, which could result in increasing levels of contaminants and sediments in What can I do to help prevent runoff that drains into the river. In the extinction of species? U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Missouri and Arkansas, agriculture Learn - Learn more about the winged 1 Federal Drive and industry are abundant in the mapleleaf and other endangered and Fort Snelling, Minnesota 55111 612/713-5350 watersheds where winged mapleleaf threatened species. Understand how http://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered are present. These activities can the destruction of habitat leads to Revised November 2009

Literature Cited Hemmingsen, A. H. 2008. Phylogenetic placement and population genetic analysis of the endangered winged mapleleaf, Quadrula fragosa. M.S. Thesis. Iowa State University. Ames, IA. 110 p.

Hornbach, D. J., and M. C. Hove. 2008. Habitat requirements of the winged mapleleaf mussel: potential habitat degradation and decline in the St. Croix River. Macalester College, St. Paul, MN. 65 p.