Rotty Top Roundup
It’s got the largest cluster of flowers—sometimes more than eight feet tall—of any plant in the world. It doesn’t flower often—maybe once every seven to 10 years. And when it does decide to flower, it emits a foul smell like the rotting body of an animal.
Rotty Top comes from the rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia. It usually lives in the biology greenhouse, but was moved—with a heat pad and humidifier—into Hesler Biology Building so members of the public can see and sniff it. Rotty Top bloomed in late July 2021.
Officially, it’s called the titan arum, or corpse flower. The specimen at UT which began to bloom for the first time since it arrived here two decades ago, is called Rotty Top.
“It’s a very unique plant,” said Jeff Martin, the greenhouse manager for UT’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. “It smells like a dead animal to attract flies, which are attracted to rotting animals. It’s bright crimson for the same reason. Botany courses use it for the students to understand different plants around the world. It’s a good teaching tool.”
Follow the UT Greenhouses on Instagram to learn more about our indoor plant collection, which is housed in four greenhouses and contains 575 different types of plants. The collection is used by majors in biology, plant science, and ecology and environmental biology, and it is visited officially each year by 300 students in 10 different classes.
Rotty Top In the News
- Whew! ‘Rotty Top’ Is a Flower Worth Sniffing
- ‘Rotty Top’ flower blooms at University of Tennessee for first time in 20 years
- Rotty Top, UT’s first corpse flower, is blooming! Here’s how to view the rare plant.
- Good Ol’ Rotty Top: A “Corpse Flower” blooms at the University of Tennessee
- Rotty Top Live: Keep watch as rare corpse flower expected to bloom at UT
- Corpse flower ‘Rotty Top’ set to bloom at University of Tennessee
- Corpse Flower With a Rotten Smell Set to Bloom at University of Tennessee at Knoxville
- Wake up and smell the corpse flower: Stinky, rare plant to bloom at University of Tennessee
Tomatoes are the heart of many backyard gardens. Tomato crops are also an important economic revenue in North America. The vegetable we all know as the “T” of a great summer BLT, however, may be in jeopardy due to a decline in its pollinator species because of climate change.
For decades, scientists have worked to understand the intricacies of biological diversity – from genetic and species diversity to ecological diversity.
Katherine Whitaker graduated magna cum laude in May 2021 as a biology major, concentrating in ecology and evolutionary biology. Katie excelled in both her course work at UK and as a successful undergraduate researcher. 
Kayci Messerly graduated from EEB in May 2021 with a minor in statistics. She completed a research study in the Derryberry lab on heat stress effects on the behavior of zebra finches in collaboration with graduate student Casey Coomes. Her hundreds of hours scoring behavioral videos paid off with presentations at two national conferences, The Animal Behavior Society and the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. 
Members of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology recognize and are proud of the long history of programs for conservation of natural resources and the promotion of human welfare that Tom Gilbert (BA ‘50, MS ‘52) has envisioned and led throughout much of the world. 
In 2020, EEB underwent a ten-year Academic Program Review to evaluate the entire program including our culture, and all aspects of the research and teaching missions of the department. The review committee (with folks from inside and outside of the university) noted that one of the “strongest cultural aspects of the department are its collegiality and collaborative spirit that infuses all they do.” 
During this past unusual year we have drawn on this collaborative spirit to help support one another and our students in many ways. With over a year of largely online learning, faculty and staff have helped each other navigate online teaching by sharing digital expertise, sharing slides and teaching materials, and supporting each other by checking in to see how everyone is doing. We have worked hard to support our students through creative methodologies for courses that may have normally been taught in person in the field or lab, by keeping in contact through virtual meetings and social events and increased communication and sharing of health, mental health and career resources. The excellence of our staff members have kept the main office productive and helpful, have maintained our research and teaching resources and collections and have found new and creative ways to support the department. Graduate students pivoted to teach online while also still figuring out ways to do research safely during a pandemic. Moreover, a motivated diversity committee has worked hard to educate and talk about critical social issues through a virtual diversity reading group to change and improve our understanding as well as create action plans to improve diversity and create a culture of true inclusion and safety within our community. 
While distancing, learning, and working in sometimes very challenging conditions in our homes, EEB has continued to be the collegial and productive department that was noted in our program review. We have graduated more than 45 undergraduate and graduate students over the last year, offered professional development and training for students and have taught all of our normally scheduled courses – even if the format was greatly modified – to prevent bottlenecks that might limit student success. 
Our research mission has continued and expanded with faculty and students working on reviews, new virtual collaborations, backyard experiments, and many other creative ways to create and apply knowledge in ecology and evolutionary biology. This year EEB students and faculty have 68 active grants from multiple agencies totaling more than $6 million (Professors Budke and Sheldon both won prestigious NSF CAREER awards), fellowships (Maryrose Weatherton won a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship), and national and local awards (Amanda Hyman won the Cheek Graduate Student Medal of Excellence, Professor Derryberry won Professional Promise in Research & Creative Achievement awards). The list is too long to include here, but we include here a list of all the award winners in the 2020-21 academic year. Our faculty and students have continued to publish important and high-profile papers. 
Laura Russo
For example, activity bags were built as a collaboration between Biology in a Box, McClung Museum, the Departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) and Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) for Darwin Day 2021. Previously, in-person activities were organized for a family fair on Darwin Day. The challenge in 2020 was to create an activity for kids that could be done at home. McClung Museum organized the concept and layouts while EEB and EPS faculty created the content. 
More than 120 Darwin Day activity bags were distributed through the local Boys & Girls club, which included students enrolled from Inskip Recreation Center, Norwood Elementary, and Deane Hill Center. Similar activity bags will be distributed through two local schools as an ongoing collaboration between McClung Museum and Biology in a Box. 