The sheeting of water keeps the edges of the rock wet without eroding the soil; in this precarious location no tree or large shrub can maintain a roothold.
[1] Cataract bogs inhabit a narrow, linear zone next to the stream and are partly shaded by trees and shrubs in the adjacent plant communities.
[3] The rushing water carves out small depressions where soil accumulates, forming micro-islands that play host to plants that thrive with low levels of nutrients and shallow root structures.
Typical species include Sphagnum moss; carnivorous plants such as round-leaf sundew (Drosera rotundifolia), pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea and S. jonesii), and horned bladderwort (Utricularia cornuta); several orchid species such as common grass pink (Calopogon tuberosus), small green wood-orchid (Platanthera clavellata), rose pogonia (Pogonia ophioglossoides), and nodding ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes cernua).
Other plants found in cataract bogs are limeseep grass-of-Parnassus (Parnassia grandifolia), Indian paint brush (Castilleja coccinea), stiff cowbane (Oxypolis rigidior), Appalachian bluet (Houstonia serpyllifolia) and northern sundrops (Oenothera tetragona).