Flora and fauna

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At the first glance the lake Ampola looks like one of the many lovely stretches of water surrounded by rich forests and green meadows but, if you pay attention, you will see the difference between this lake and a tourist one. The shores of a tourist lake are regular and deprive of spontaneous vegetation, often covered by sand or gravel to favour the bathing. On the contrary, the shores of a natural lake are winding and the vegetation is blooming and various. That is why the environment of a biotope is very rich in flora and fauna that give it a relevant importance from the naturalistic point of view. What particularly hits in the summer months is the presence on the water of a kind of green carpet, formed by the leaves of some water-plants, called lamina-vegetation. Most of these plants are yellow water-lily (Nuphar Luteum), which heart-shaped leafs float. The flowers are, of course, yellow and bloom between May and August. The big roots are in the slime in an environment, which is very poor in oxygen because the water is not deep and there is not so much exchange. That is why the fishes that live here are the typical ones of the pools such as the pike (Exos Lucius), and the tench (Tinca Tinca). The first one is a voracious plunderer, the other feeds on water-plants. Where the water is only few centimetres deep grows thick vegetation: the reed thicket, constituted mostly by the Phragmites Australis, a thin marsh reed until 3 m high. Here you can observe also the Typha Latifolia, which panicle becomes brown, and the Schoenoplectus Lacustris. The reed thicket is very important for the fauna of the lake: the fishes hide between the plants and here lay their eggs. Also aquatic birds nest here or near the lake, like the mallard (Anas Platyrhynchos), the moor-hen (Gallinula Chloropus) and other kinds of ducks. Along the shore live a lot of herbaceous water-plants like the Carex Elata. It is very easy to recognize it because it forms bushes until 50 cm high. In the north-eastern part of the biotope there is a marsh meadow, a very interesting eco-system because it is like a bridge between water and ground. During the raining-time, normally in spring, this meadow is crossed by water. The stagnation of water attracts a lot of frogs (Rana temporaria) and toads (Bufo Bufo) that here mate and lay the eggs. During the blooming season there is the possibility to know rare plants like the fever-clover (Menyanthes Trifoliata), the Parnassia Palustris and the Epipactis Palustris, a kind of orchid.