GATLINBURG (AP) (Feb 18, 2002)— Collecting ramps, the onion-like harbinger of spring for many in the Appalachians, will be banned from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Managers of the country's most-visited national park are worried that lovers of what has been described as the "sweetest tasting, vilest smelling plant that grows'" could harvest it to death in the Smokies.

The park has allowed individuals to pick a peck of ramps (about a grocery bag) a day for personal use even as the Blue Ridge Parkway and Shenandoah National Park barred the practice in recent years.

But a recently completed five-year study suggested the leek's numbers are threatened in the Smokies by growing ramp demand, fueled by regional festivals and recipes in magazines, Superintendent Mike Tollefson said yesterday.

Everyone expected that "ramp collecting would eventually decline on its own as the native, mountain-born people who grew up living off the land grew older," he said. "This has not happened."

The Smokies study didn't calculate exactly how many ramps are left in the national park, but the trend was clear. "We didn't want to wait until there was one ramp left," Smokies spokesman Bob Miller said.

The study found that contrary to folk wisdom, ramps do not resprout if a collector leaves a little of the root tip, or rhizome, in place rather than pulling it up entirely with its root.

The research also found that a ramp patch extensively harvested can take 20 years to recover.

Although ramps are not endangered and can be found growing in mountain forests above 3,000 feet as far north as Canada, the Smokies has a responsibility to preserve its native plants and animals, Tollefson said.

"A key mission of the National Park Service is to provide sanctuary, in perpetuity, for all the plants and animals in the park," he said.

Ramps, considered a tasty addition to everything from barbecue to cornbread, can still be picked legally in the Cherokee National Forest surrounding the Smokies or purchased commercially.

Studies and synthesis of related materials are being planned.

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Last revision July 13, 2001.