Both even-aged and more mixed stands are represented, the latter typically with a shrub layer including gorse and honeysuckle on the plateau, and elder and hazel on the slopes.
On the plateau, brambles, bracken and rosebay willowherb occupy extensive patches, but a more mixed ground flora occurs between these, including creeping soft-grass (Holcus mollis), hairy brome (Bromus ramosus), tufted hair-grass (Deschampsia cespitosa), wood millet (Milium effusum) and wood melick (Melica uniflora).
Several localised plant species such as squinancywort (Asperula cynanchica) chalk eyebright (Euphrasia pseudokerneri), horseshoe vetch (Hippocrepis comosa), autumn gentian (Gentianella amarella) and clustered bellflower (Campanula glomerata) occur.
A further small area of chalk grassland dominated by wood false-brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum) and glaucous sedge (Carex flacca) occurs at the foot of Pink Hill.
23 species of butterflies have been recorded, including brown hairstreak (Thecla betulae), which requires scrub thickets and woodland edge habitats.