The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt pine-oak forests ecoregion covers the mountains surrounding the basin to the west, north, and east.

The basin includes six maar lakes, locally called axalpazcos, lying in shallow volcanic craters and sustained by underground water.

[4] Chief towns in the basin include El Carmen Tequexquitla, Tlaxcala; Perote, Veracruz; and Oriental, Puebla.

Groundwater levels in the basin have been dropping in recent years because of over-exploitation for irrigation and destruction of natural recharging areas.

In the deep parts of the lake, abundant cladophores develop on the spongy stromatolites, with many cyanobacterial epiphytes Chamaesiphon halophilus, Heteroleibleinia profunda, Mantellum rubrum and Xenococcus candelariae.

The dominant species throughout the year are Agmenellum sp., Amphora sp., Chaetoceros similis, Coscinodiscus sp., Cyclotella striata, Nodularia spumigena, Stephanodiscus niagarae and Synechocystis sp.

The best represented species best of vascular plants in the axalpazcos are rooted emergent hydrophytes Eleocharis montevidensis, Juncus andicola, J. balticus subsp.