A member of the buttercup family, Common water-crowfoot displays white, buttercup-like flowers with yellow centres. It can form mats in ponds, ditches and streams during spring and summer.

Look out for the white, umbrella-like flower heads of lesser water-parsnip along the shallow margins of ditches, ponds, lakes and rivers. When crushed, it does, indeed, smell like parsnip!

Freshwater pearl mussels spend their adult lives anchored to the river bed, filtering water through their gills and improving the quality of the water for other species.

Another member of the echinoderm phylum, feather stars share some characteristics with true starfish, but also have their very own intriguing adaptations and behaviours, which make them a…

The UK is home to so many incredible sea slugs, like this elegant nudibranch.