Woodlands cover only 1% of the LCA and conifers in Sillees Wood account for most of this; lodgepole pine is dominant in the wood with Sitka spruce and Scots pine, although there is some birch and oak. Elsewhere woodland is predominantly wet woodland and birch woodland on cut-over bog; in wetter parts willows and alder dominate, whereas on the drier peat birch is dominant, sometimes forming pure communities. On the driest sites birch can be intermixed with ash, sycamore and hawthorn, as at Lisblake Bog. There is usually little of an understorey and the herb layer is of poor diversity. Some small patches of hazel and hazel-ash scrub and woodland may be found around Drummuck, below the limestone escarpment.
Grassland and ArableGrassland covers about 94% of the LCA, a high figure even for Northern Ireland (c. 71% for NI as a whole) and of this more than four-fifths is improved pasture. However, this is probably an over-estimate because many of the improved pastures show evidence of declining productivity, for example, many fields show an invasion of rushes and hedgerows are neglected. Generally, improved pastures are of low biodiversity because they are often sown rye grass pastures, have fertilizers and slurry applied, and are subject to repeated cutting for silage, or to heavy grazing. Frequently in lowland Northern Ireland biodiversity in improved pastures and arable land is confined to the hedgerows. Here, the hedges are very overgrown and gappy and do not offer the micro-habitats that enable a rich diversity of plants to become established, especially where grazing and trampling occurs through the gappy hedges. Hedges are, however, densely treed, predominantly with ash, though alder and willow are also common in the damp soils.
Around the cut-over bogs, where trees have not colonized and it is not too wet, acid grassland, with purple moor grass and tufted hair grass, has developed. This is of relatively low biodiversity, but some pasture fields in the LCA are managed traditionally for hay and grazing at low stocking levels; where the soils are more neutral, this can give rise to slightly more diverse grasslands.
Heaths and BogsThroughout the northern half of the LCA, lowland raised bog is common between drumlins and in flat-floored valleys. Lowland raised bog is a rare habitat in the UK, and Northern Ireland has a large proportion of that remaining; in particular it has much of the intact lowland bog. In the best examples there is a diversity of structural features including hummocks and hollows and pools that give rise to micro-habitats, related especially to the height of the water table. 
The plant species are adapted not only to the generally waterlogged, acid and low nutrient conditions, but also to these small-scale variations in topography and water level. Typical plant species include bog mosses, deer sedge, cotton sedges, bog asphodel, sundews, cross-leaved heath and common heather. Along with blanket bog, raised bogs are an important store of carbon and are a repository of environmental and archaeological information.
Although most of the raised bogs in this LCA have been cut-over, as for example Five Points Bog, Carney Hill Bog, Derreens East and Drumanacabranagher Bog (which has the marsh fritillary butterfly), there are three areas of intact bog - Lisblake Bog, Clontymullan Bog and Tattenamona Bog. Lisblake bog is degraded by fairly constant burning and peat extraction. However, it does have all three species of sundew (Drosera rotundifolia, D. longifolia and D. intermedia), a feature rare elsewhere, but common to the remaining intact areas of bog in this LCA. Clontymullan Bog has a small intact surface (approx 6ha) on which the microtopography is subdued, with mostly low hummocks and a few small pools. The bog contains several rare species including the bog mosses Sphagnum fuscum and S. imbricatum. This bog is the only recorded site for Rhynchospora fusca in Northern Ireland (and very scarce in Britain and Ireland), but the record is rather old, and it also has the first recorded occurrence of bog rosemary in Co. Fermanagh.
Tattenamona ASSI is among the best remaining examples of a lowland raised bog within the drumlin belt of Northern Ireland. Cutting and burning have been confined to the margin, leaving the majority of the dome intact with a wide range of characteristic vegetation and structural features, including pool, hummock and lawn complexes. The surrounds of the bog have been cut for turf, creating a mosaic of habitats. These include grassland, dominated by purple moor-grass and scrubby woodland, in which downy birch is the main species.
Wetlands and LakesThere are no significant wetlands in the LCA.
Key IssuesGeneral actions for UK and NI Priority Habitats and Priority Species are detailed in the Habitat Action Plans and Species Action Plans.
WOODLANDSIssue: very low woodland cover
Actions:
Issue: poor biodiversity of farmland
Actions:
Issue: raised bogs are of national and international importance
Actions: