The correct answer is - They formed long ago, and erosion has beveled them to their present elevation.
The Appalachian Mountain Range is one of the oldest mountain ranges on the planet. They have formed in the Ordovician Period, around 480 million years ago. When they formed and were at their peak, the Appalachians were much larger and higher than what they are in the present. The reason for their decline in size is attributed to the erosion. The erosion is a process that removes the material from its original position. This process has been influencing, at different rates, the Appalachians for almost half a billion years. Even though the erosion is not a process that acts very quickly, when put the time that it influenced these mountains we will see that it managed to lower them significantly. That process continues in the present, and in the manner in which the continents are moving, there shouldn't be any force that will help lift up the Appalachians again, but instead they will continue to shrink until they are flattened in the distant future.
I'm pretty sure it's the Eichhornia crassipes. It is a water hyacinth, and it was overgrown in the Lake Victoria area.
They affect it by off roading with trucks and more and that messes up the desert floor for animals to camoflauge like snakes.
