<p>Strong shear flows form through and above the vegetation layer in natural rivers, leading to local scour at the roots of vegetation. In this paper, turbulent characteristics of the flow above a sediment bed in a rigid vegetation environment are studied experimentally, and the quadrant analysis is undertaken to investigate turbulence characteristics and material transport mechanism of the vegetation above a sand bed. The results show that after the vegetation is placed on the sand bed, flow velocity above the vegetation increases while flow resistance also increases. In the near-bed area, the Reynolds stress under the presence of vegetation is greater than that without vegetation, so the bed is prone to erosion in the vegetation area. Under the rigid vegetation environment, the dominant flow patterns are different at different vertical positions. At the top of the vegetation (0.6 ≤ <i>z</i> / <i>h</i> ≤ 1.2), the flow is mainly characterized by “eject” and “sweep” events, which contribute significantly to the Reynolds stress. In the vegetation layer (0.1 ≤ <i>z</i> / <i>h</i> ≤ 0.4), the flow is dominated by the “outward” and “inward” events, with these two events showing clear dominance. Influenced by vegetation, the vertical transport of turbulent kinetic energy is altered. Near the top of the vegetation, turbulent kinetic energy is transported vertically from the vegetation top (<i>z</i> / <i>h</i> = 0.9) towards both the water surface and the sand bed. Inside the vegetation zone, affected by bed form, turbulent kinetic energy is transported vertically from the position near the bed (<i>z</i> / <i>h</i> = 0.2).</p>