Moorlinch is a 226.0 hectare

Hectare

The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...

 (558.4 acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest at Moorlinch

Moorlinch

Moorlinch is a village and civil parish where the Polden Hills meet the Somerset Levels in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, England.-History:...

 in Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

, notified in 1985.

Moorlinch is part of the extensive grazing marsh grasslands and ditch systems of the Somerset Levels

Somerset Levels

The Somerset Levels, or the Somerset Levels and Moors as they are less commonly but more correctly known, is a sparsely populated coastal plain and wetland area of central Somerset, South West England, between the Quantock and Mendip Hills...

 and Moors. Lying in the Parrett

River Parrett

The River Parrett flows through the counties of Dorset and Somerset in South West England, from its source in the Thorney Mills springs in the hills around Chedington in Dorset...

 Basin at the foot of the Polden Hills

Polden Hills

The Polden Hills in Somerset, England are a long, low ridge, extending for , and separated from the Mendip Hills, to which they are nearly parallel, by a marshy tract, known as the Somerset Levels...

, the area drains by gravity into the King’s Sedgemoor Drain.
The water table is high for most of the year with frequent winter flooding from high ground and surface water remaining on many fields throughout the winter and early spring. Moorlinch contains a good proportion of botanically rich ditch systems. Regularly
maintained field ditches are often species-rich and diverse. Notable species include Lesser Water-plantain (Baldellia ranunculoides), Tubular Water-dropwort (Oenanthe fistulosa) and Hairlike Pondweed (Potamogeton trichoides). The channels and banksides support a rich fauna; rare species include the water beetle

Water beetle

A water beetle is a beetle adapted to living in water. Water beetles rise to the water surface and take atmospheric air into their tracheal systems. There are approximately 2000 species of water beetles. The rest marine species tend to live in the intertidal zone...

 (Hydrophilus piceus) and the soldier fly (Odontomyia ornata). Large populations of dragonflies and damselflies occur, including the Hairy Dragonfly

Hairy Dragonfly

Brachytron is a monophyletic genus of European dragonfly of the family Aeshnidae containing the Hairy Dragonfly , also known as the Hairy Hawker.- Description :...

 (Brachytron pratense) and the Variable Damselfly

Variable Damselfly

Coenagrion pulchellum, the Variable Damselfly or Variable Bluet, is a European damselfly. Despite its name, it is not the only blue damselfly prone to variable patterning....

(Coenagrion pulchellum).