Flora
1,020 species of native plants and 39 species of native trees have been identified. Seventy species use "Lebanon" in their names, such as Cedrus libani, Salix libanii, and Berberis libanotica. Twenty-two other species carry names significant to Lebanon, such as Dianthus karami (after Youssef Bey Karam, a 19th-century national figure), and Astragalus ehdenensis (after the village of Ehden). A total of 212 (20%) species are rare and another 126 (12%) are considered threatened; 115 are endemic to Lebanon, and ten are endemic to Horsh Ehden. Seventy-eight species are recognized as medicinal plants. The reserve is also considered the southernmost limit to Cilician fir (Abies cilicica).
Plant communities
The forest plant communities of highest conservation importance are:
Horsh Ehden is the only protected area in Lebanon that contains a community of the wild apple of Lebanon.
Fauna
Mammals
More than 27 species of mammals have been sighted in the reserve, representing a third of Lebanese mammals. Insectivores, carnivores, rodents, lagomorpha, chiroptera, and artiodactyls have all been identified in the reserve.
Thirteen species are globally threatened, one species is locally threatened and highly endangered (the gray wolf, Canis lupus), and one species is endemic to the reserve (the lesser white-toothed shrew, Crocidura suaveolens).
Species identified in the reserve include Cape hare (Lepus capensis), wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus), Eurasian badger (Meles meles), southern white-breasted hedgehog (Erinaceus concolor), Indian porcupine (Histrix indica), Caucasian squirrel (Sciurus anomalus), striped hyena (Hyaena hyanena), least weasel (Mustela nivalis), wildcat (Felis silvestris), gray wolf (Canis lupus), and marbled polecat (Vormela Peregusna).
The reserve may have also been home to extinct species in Lebanon such as roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), Persian fallow deer (Dama dama mesopotamica), Anatolian leopard (Panthera pardus tulliana), Syrian brown bear (Ursus arctos syriacus), and aurochs (Bos primigenius).
Birds
The reserve has many different bird habitats. Four of the identified bird species are globally threatened, five are regionally vulnerable, eighteen face unfavorable conditions in Europe, and fifty-seven are rare in Lebanon.
Species include eastern imperial eagle (Aquila heliaca), Bonelli's eagle (Hieraaetus fasciatus), blue tit (Parus caeruleus), corn crake (Crex crex), Levant sparrowhawk (Accipiter brevipes), saker falcon (Falco cherrug), white pelican (Pelecanus onocratalus), black stork (Ciconia nigra), Egyptian vulture (Neophron perenopetrus), European bee-eater (Merops apiaster), sand martin (Riparia riparia), white stork (Ciconia ciconia), common wood-pigeon (Columba polumbus), great spotted cuckoo (Clamator glandarius), barn owl (Tyto alba), and the Syrian woodpecker (Dendrocopos syriacus).
Song thrush
Egyptian vulture
Eurasian blue tit
Common wood-pigeon