It is native to the eastern United States, where it occurs in Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

[2] Several fish species act as hosts for the glochidia of this mussel, including the central stoneroller (Campostoma anomalum), river chub (Nocomis micropogon), common shiner (Luxilus cornutus), whitetail shiner (Cyprinella galactura), Tennessee shiner (Notropis leuciodus), telescope shiner (Notropis telescopus), and fantail darter (Etheostoma flabellare).

Its habitat is now fragmented and it now has a disjunct distribution in several river systems in the area, and it is absent from much of its former range.

They are impacted by channel alteration, dam flows, siltation, development, commercial clam harvesting, loss of the fish species that host its glochidia, and water pollution from several sources, such as mine tailings.

[5] One of the species' synonyms, Unio lawi (Lea, 1871) was in honor of the conchologist Annie Law.