Many open water ponds jot the surface of the mat. Over time, solid peat may fill the bog, more typical land plants will grow, and it will no longer be a bog. These plants have adapted to survive under conditions where most other plants could not. Hairs inside the pitchers point down and lead insects to the bottom where they are digested by a mixture of water and enzymes. Sundew traps and digests insects and its red, sweet smeeling, sticky pads that spread from the central plant.
Bladderworts grow just below the surface of open water.
Like tiny mousetraps, they snap shut on aquatic insects. Orchids Ten of Indiana's 38 orchid species grow here. Many are others are inconspicuous or are not visible from the boardwalk. Rare plants Indiana lists 20 of the plants at Pinhook Bog as threatened or endangered. Botanists know 22 plants within the bog as rare for the national lakeshore.