# Periwinkle shells

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/periwinkle-shells/834096>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 17, 2019, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/periwinkle-shells/834096 "2019-05-17T02:46:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2019, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/periwinkle-shells/834096/1 "2019-05-17T02:46:32Z")

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A post on a local history page featured these small shells from Lake Erie. I remember them well. But a image search for periwinkle shows shells that are much fatter. Are these some variation of periwinkles?

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Dennis

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**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2019, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/periwinkle-shells/834096/2 "2019-05-17T13:46:41Z")

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I’m not a biologist, but what I can find right now on periwinkles all show the “fatter” kind. And [this page](http://redandthepeanut.blogspot.com/2016/02/shelling-at-lake-erie.html) about shells from the Great Lakes reference a different genus, with conical shells, [Pleurocera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleurocera).

But that’s the biologist definition. According to Merriam-Websters you can call any old snail a periwinkle:

> [@](#):
>
> periwinkle noun (2)  
> Definition of periwinkle (Entry 2 of 2)  
> : any of various gastropod mollusks: such as  
> a : any of a genus (Littorina) of edible littoral marine snails  
> also : any of various similar or related marine snails  
> b : any of several North American freshwater snails

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**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2019, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/periwinkle-shells/834096/3 "2019-05-17T13:57:01Z")

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Before today, I’ve never heard periwinkle used to refer to anything other than marine gastropods (which are very tasty!) or the flowers and associated colour.

Calling pleurocerids periwinkles is just a quaint regionalism.

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**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2019, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/periwinkle-shells/834096/4 "2019-05-17T15:27:11Z")

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I wonder if they are edible. You would need a lot of them. The rivers around here have several species of mussels. At my grandfather’s farm on the Black River near Grafton you can find ones over 4" long.

Dennis