Common plant types in the desert include saksaul, milkvetch, mugwort and sedge.

The Andasay State Nature Reserve is a 1,000,000 hectares (2,500,000 acres) protected area that was established in 1966.

[1] The Moiynkum Desert is limited by the Chu River to the north and east and the Karatau and Kyrgyz Ala-Too mountain ranges to the south and southeast.

River Chu flows at the northern edge of the desert, with lakes Kokuydynkol and Zhalanash close to the left side of its channel.

In wet years the Chu may reach the endorheic salt lake Akzhaykyn in the Ashchykol Depression, at the western end of the desert.