The modest Lesser Skullcap plant is emblematic of the critical, often small, species used as marginal planting in our biological swimming pools. Biodiversity requires a wide and varied offering of species, which collectively provide structure, sustenance, and shade for the swimming environment. This plant is obscure and difficult to source in standard aquatic nurseries. [...]

Those who clean their house do so because they expect visitors. And those who clean their biological pool take care of it not only for themselves, but also for nature. From an ecological point of view, a biological pool is a permanently wet area, but quite small in size. Everything that comes from outside [...]

With the first Autumn rains, the mating season begins for many Iberian amphibian species, unlike in Central Europe, where Spring is the preferred season. In much of the Iberian Peninsula, the comparatively mild weather, with rainy nights, motivates species of tree frogs, toads, and newts to migrate to wetlands. It is not uncommon for [...]

In natural swimming pools, biological processes are the same as those in big natural lakes. Aquatic plants play a crucial role in maintaining water quality. The topic of water treatment with aquatic plants was also on the agenda of the 17th Aquatic Plant Symposium in Lisbon, September 15-19, 2025. Therefore, we accepted the invitation [...]

There are rootless aquatic plants living in clean waters called Utricularia. They are distributed worldwide, and two species also exist in Portugal. The plant's green structure is a very thin stem with leaves reduced to filaments. On these thin branches, we can find the utricles. These are round structures about a millimeter in diameter [...]