As of 1984, the marsh area mostly contained common reed, "Juncus inflexus" or hard rush, and blunt-flowered rush, along with great willowherb, purple loosestrife and meadowsweet. Where there was more groundwater, there was a "carpet of bryophytes", besides "Carex lepidocarpa" or long-stalk yellow sedge, carnation sedge, "Valeriana dioica" or marsh valerian and marsh arrowgrass, all of which grew among the more numerous lesser hairy-willowherb, marsh pennywort and marsh horsetail. Around the marsh is grassland on neutral soil. On this grows twayblade, common spotted orchid, common agrimony, pepper saxifrage and knapweed, with other herbs. There is also an area of "species-rich calcareous grassland" which is not waterlogged, and which has patches of buckthorn and hawthorn. This area is maintained with light grazing, to encourage grasses, sedges and diverse herbs. The grasses are purple moor-grass, heath grass, quaking grass and hairy oat. The sedges include glaucous sedge in particular. There are plenty of orchids: bee orchid and fragrant orchid. The herbs include adder’s-tongue fern, cowslip, hoary plantain, yellow rattle and betony. The special wetland plants noted in Natural England's citation for the SSSI are: "Oenanthe lachenalii" or parsley water dropwort, brookweed and bog pimpernel. The drier-land plants of note are felwort or autumn gentian, and bird’s-eye primrose. This SSSI was not designated as such for its fauna, the only mention on Natural England's assessment documents being possible rabbit nuisance in 2015. However on 9 March 1970, 60,000 starlings were reported in a hawthorn thicket on the site. A Bradford University student thesis lists five undated historical reports of the red fox at the site, and "A History of the Bramham Hunt" (1898) gives an instance of finding foxes there. When Taylor and Wallace visited the site in 1943, they noticed a "rich insect fauna," and Taylor reported that in view of that virtue, together with the variety of flora then present, "it would seem that the area has a strong claim for consideration in any scheme for the creation of nature reserves."