Daisies, Queen Anne's lace, and, later, Black-eyed Susans color the year longest days. Butterfly weed glows bright orange in July. An invasive, exotic grass, fescue, dominates Cades Cove. Other common grasses and sedges are velvet grass and broom sedge. The Park works to increase native grasses percentages.
Recent studies show elimination exotic grasses leads to greater plant and animal diversity.
Trees Sixty years ago, the most common Park tree was American Chestnut. Due to a disease, chestnut blight, every adult chestnut in the eastern United States died. Loss of the chestnut heavily impacted animals depending on the nuts for winter fat. Scientists continue to work search for hybrid chestnut species that can resist this disease. Black walnuts are common near homesites.