Anodonta species become sexually mature at about four to five years of age and can live up to about 15 years. Relative to other western mussel species, they are considered to be short lived and fast growing. Male mussels release sperm into the water column and a female takes it in through her incurrent siphon to fertilize eggs. Fertilized eggs migrate within the mussel to a special portion of the gill known as the marsupium. The eggs develop into larvae called glochidia and are released by the female in the spring through early summer. Once released the glochidia, which look like very tiny mussels, attach to a host fish’s gills where they become encysted and remain for weeks to months until they detach and settle to the substrate. Mussel species are often specific regarding what species of fish they use as hosts. Some of host species of the winged floater include pit sculpin (Cottus pitensis), Sacramento pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus grandis), tule perch (Hysterocarpus traski), and green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus). Anodonta glochidia have been found on fish from the fall through the spring but most often in the spring to the early summer. Timing of reproductive events is affected by habitat, water temperature and the individual species.

The winged floater and California floater (A. californiensis) can be considered to be in the same taxonomic clade.

Exterior color is highly variable, yellowish to brown to black, and the interior color of the shell is usually white but sometimes with a flesh-colored, purplish, or bluish tint.

The winged floater is elliptical or ovate. The length to height ratio is usually less than 1.5. Shells are thin and lightweight and may have a wing like protrusion on the dorsal posterior edge. The exterior color of the shell can be highly variable, from yellowish to brown or to black. The interior color of the shell is usually white but sometimes with a flesh-colored, purplish, or bluish tint. Typical of all Anodonta, there are no hinge teeth present on either valve.

Winged floaters are most often found in the sand and mud of lakes and reservoirs or in stable areas of slow-moving stream reaches. On rare occasions, individuals have been found in streams with gravel bottoms.

Like all freshwater mussels, winged floaters are filter feeders that siphon suspended particles from the water column. They may consume plankton, bacteria, dissolved organic matter, or algae. This filtering provides an important water quality service by reducing turbidity and controlling nutrient levels, especially where there are dense mussel beds. Particles not used by the mussel are often re-formed and expelled as larger particles that are in turn used as food by other aquatic life.

Freshwater mussels are sedentary organisms, spending their entire lives near where they settled. They can use their foot to move laterally across sediments (usually short distances) or vertically within the sediments. Mussel movements may be related to reproduction or a response to physical disturbance and environmental changes such as water temperature, stream flows, or scouring of the stream bed. Mussel displacement due to high flows or dislodgement due to predators or human activity also likely occurs. The main mode of mussel dispersal comes through a stage of development when larvae (glochidia) parasitize a host fish and move with the host within the aquatic system.