Morphological traits related to pearl performance were compared in triangle pearl mussel Hyriopsis cumingii from three geographical populations.The external feature of triangle mussel from Dongting Lake (DT) and Taihu Lake (TH) is roundplump type and longflat type respectively. DT population is significantly higher than other two populations in traits related to pearl performance, inculding body weight index, shell weight index, shell width index and shell thickness index. Path analysis indicates that shell thickness has the greatest direct effect on shell weight, and shell length is the sencondary direct factor, whereas shell height and shell width have greater indirect effect. The ratio of purple color in posterior margin area is higher than that in the anterior in all three geographical populations (P = 0.055). More than 70% individuals from Poyang Lake (PY) have purple or lavender nacre color in all areas, while most of individuals from DT and TH have white nacre in anterior margin area, and show purple or lavender in posterior margin and central nacre area. There are 20% individuals with light blue nacre observed only in TH population. The golden yellow mottling with irregular shape randomly appears in PY population with higher ratio (100%) than DT (45%) and TH population (15%). All results show that DT population shows more suitable morphological triats related to pearl performance which can be used as furture broodstock in recipient mussel seletive breeding, while TH population has potential for donor mussel and new strain with light blue narce selection, and PY population shows greater potential for new strain with purple nacre selection.