One of Vanderbilt's best-kept secrets, Stevenson Center is home to not just one - but seven - greenhouses.

Most Vanderbilt students know of the various opportunities available to them - from numerous student organizations that range in cultural diversity to a psychology center that helps those in distress to a wide variety of research choices.

But many are unaware one of those options is studying plant life in a greenhouse.

Although their location may be the primary cause of their mysteriousness, Vanderbilt houses seven greenhouses open to all students and faculty who are interested in exploring their resources.

The greenhouses, which used to be located near Buttrick Hall, were moved to the seventh floor of Stevenson Center a few years ago.

"When the greenhouses were near Buttrick, we didn't have much traffic," said Dr. Jonathan Ertelt, manager of the greenhouses and member of the biological sciences department. "But now that we are on the top floor of Stevenson, almost no one comes here."

Students attest to this observation.

"I had no idea we have greenhouses at Vanderbilt," said freshman Meher Juttukonda.

"I'm not surprised that Vanderbilt has greenhouses but I've never seen them before," said sophomore Dexter Kern.

Designed to allow for flexibility in studying a wide array of plants, the greenhouses are arranged in terms of temperature. The outer two houses are warm for tropical plants, whereas the innermost houses contain individual air conditioning units for plants that require cold temperatures, primarily those that grow on mountains.

"The goals of these greenhouses are to keep a good representative of the plant kingdom," Ertelt said. "We also want these greenhouses to be available for teaching purposes for folks to come and see the plants."

Anyone can access the greenhouses, which are open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Although five of the greenhouses are used for research purposes such as identifying new plant species, the last two greenhouses are termed by Ertelt as the "teaching collections," where the vast majority of flowers and trees can be found. Such plants include members of the African violet family, orchids, aroids, pineapples, bromeliads and six species of trees that range from oaks to red maples. Inhabitants of these greenhouses even include poison dart frogs.

"A lot of the teaching plants are new to science," Ertelt said. "We ask questions on whether or not the plants are new species or whether they fit into a certain species concept."

Although Ertelt conducts minor research on his own, his main goal is to maintain a diverse collection. To aid him in his goal, Ertelt has established an extensive network for over 30 years.

"I get seeds from colleagues from diverse places such as Ecuador as they continue to do their research," Ertelt said. "But other sources include a wide variety of commercial sources."

Relatively little work has been done on the plants in terms of medicine, drugs and transgenics. However, some research has been done with graduate students and faculty. For example, in an article published in 2007 by the American Journal of Botany, the Vanderbilt greenhouses were used to grow strands of Silene vulgaris, which are often referred to as maiden's tears, cowbell or bladder campion, to show evidence that chloroplast DNA does not necessarily need to be derived from the mother plant, as was previously thought. Another study conducted by graduate student Jennifer Ellis under professor David McCauley tested whether a unique variety of sunflower housed in the greenhouses was actually a new species or not.

Ertelt said he enjoys his work, but he wishes more students would come to see it.

"Sure, it is more peaceful up here in this location," Ertelt said. "But it'd be better if more people came and saw these plants."

-Vasanth Sathiyakumar can be reached at vasanth.sathiyakumar@vanderbilt.edu