The shore of the lake is covered with ichu (stipa ichu), qiwuña (polylepis sp), shunqu shunqu (stangea erikae), kuñaq or botoncillo (werneria dactylophylla), lliqllish qura (werneria nubigea), inka waraqu (opuntia flocossa), rima rima (krapfia weberbaueri) and tawlli machu (lupinus weberbaueri).
It grows in wet páramo habitat among Polylepis and next to lakes, as well as grassy páramo and Andean forests.
A number of endangered birds restricted to relict Polylepis forests call the park home, such as the White-cheeked Cotinga, Plain-tailed Warbling-finch, Giant Conebill, and Tawny Tit-Spinetail.
It is restricted to a narrow swath of treeline vegetation (scrub, stunted trees and Polylepis woodland) situated between montane forest and Páramo grasslands that is often just hundreds of meters wide.
It is a resinous shrub, growing up to 2 m in height, that is typically found in semi-arid central Andean dry, or tola heath, puna habitats, at altitudes of 3500–5000 m above sea level, and in the undergrowth of central Andean Polylepis forest.
Common to frequent in the woodlands and scrub typical of the dry Interandean valles extended up into Polylepis forests, and into the shrubby transition zones to high elevation puna or the moister cloud forests.
It is confined to tiny, humid patches of Polylepis woodland and montane scrub, and the major threat to its survival is the use of fire and heavy grazing which restrict the regeneration of Polylepis.
Its habitat is open land, including cultivated land, that has patches of scrub, alder trees, or Polylepis trees.
Smaller numbers of the latter race may visit mountain scrub and stunted Polylepis woodland at as low 900 m (but rarely below 2,900 m).
The Golfo-Dulce Anole or Many-scaled Anole, Norops polylepis (formerly "Anolis polylepis"), is a lizard endemic to the Gulf of Dulce area of Costa Rica.