Hot Horticulturists

Getting to know corpse flower hunk Zac Stayton

Horticulturist Zac Stayton measures Lois early in the process.
Sorry ladies, he's taken
One of the more colorful, beautiful blooms

Zac Stayton is a tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, 26-year-old guy who's become a local celeb as ... a horticulturist. OK, a horticulturist hunk.

This would normally be surprising, but with corpse flower fever taking over Houston, normal is so June 2010. Lois (the flower’s handle) has drawn a 24/7 stream of admirers to the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and Zac’s the man with the answers.

A graduate of Sam Houston State University with a degree in Horticulture, Zac’s been working at the museum for just six months. He tells CultureMap, "When I discovered I could make a living with my hands in the dirt, I couldn’t pass it up."

Zac calls himself an “amateur photographer” and loves hiking and the outdoors. He’s the kind of guy you want taking care of Houston’s rarest flower.

Concerning Lois, he explains that corpse flowers are “all a little different in their coloring.” Early on, botanists advised him to look for a line of purple around the flower’s petal fold as a sign of its opening. HMNS's flower of death has had that for days leading Zac to believe it would open sooner than it has.

As Zac researched, he found that some corpse flowers have more color than others (aka some are ugly, some are pretty) and Lois’ bud is comparable to the more beautiful blooms (such as the one pictured on the right). This means when she finally opens up, she’s going to be gorgeous. This is obviously not any ordinary bloom.

HMNS first tweeted that Lois was in the "very early stages" of bloom on Tuesday and has maintained the stance that the flower is blooming, even if the opening that everyone is awaiting for hasn't happened.

The horticulturist is done with setting timetables. Lois only follows her own pace.

In the meantime, he’s getting the “word out” about the flower and jumping into the conversation that’s taken the Internet by storm.

If you're a Twitter user in Houston, mentions of #corpseflower and Zac are impossible to miss. Zac heard that tons of things were being tweeted about him (some good, a lot flirtatious), so Wednesday night, he set up his first Twitter account. He’s hortzac and the first Twitter account Zac chose to follow, even before HMNS, was none other than the mysterious CorpzFlowrLois — the chief flirt offender.

According to the flower’s tweets, she’s expecting a proposal from Zac. CorpzFlowrLois and the rest of Houston’s single female population should take note — Stayton already has a girlfriend.

If you can’t get to the museum and you still want to see Zac (and maybe that fussed-over flower too), you can always check out on HMNS's webcam. Zac is almost always in front of the flower from 9-10 a.m., taking his daily measurements.

One of the ... blander corpse flower blooms. Stayton is sure Lois is going to be better than this:

unspecified

room for improvement

Houston has work to do on ranking of America's fittest cities for 2026

Photo by Gabin Vallet on Unsplash

About 74 percent of Houstonians have exercised in the past month.

Houstonians are more fit than they used to be, but the city still needs to hit the gym. The Bayou City ranks in the middle of the pack in a ranking of America's fittest cities.

This year’s American Fitness Index puts Houston at No. 44 among the country’s 100 most populated cities, up from 49th place last year. Houston ranks 26th in the personal health category and a disappointing 64th in the community and environment category.

The index shows 74 percent of Houston residents had exercised in the previous month, 57 percent had met aerobic activity guidelines, and 33 percent had met aerobic and strength activity guidelines. The first two of those numbers are below the 100-city averages.

The Elevance Health Foundation and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) produce the annual index, which they say combines measures of personal health behavior, chronic disease outcomes, community infrastructure, and environmental factors “to provide a comprehensive picture of how well cities promote fitness and well-being.”

Arlington, Virginia, tops the index, followed by Washington, D.C.; Minneapolis; Seattle; and Denver. The Dallas suburb of Plano takes the top Texas spot at No. 12 nationally.

“The cities that consistently rank at the top aren’t succeeding because of one program or one investment,” Stella Volpe, past president of ACSM and chair of the Fitness Index Advisory Board, says in a press release. “They’ve built systems that support healthier living over time. They are the ones creating environments where physical activity can easily become a part of everyday routines.”

One thing helping Houston is its strong network of parks. In May, Houston landed at No. 10 in Texas and 69th in the U.S. in the annual ParkScore Index. That was down slightly from 2025.

Every year, land conservation nonprofit The Trust for Public Land rates park systems in the 100 biggest American cities on accessibility, equity, acreage, investment, and amenities.

Among other Texas cities appearing in the American Fitness index are:

No. 28 Austin, down from No. 21 last year.
No. 43 Dallas, up from 46th last year.
No. 69 Fort Worth, up from 80th last year.
No. 80 San Antonio, up from No. 94 last year.

“Where you live increasingly determines how healthy you are,” Volpe says. “The healthiest cities don’t just encourage exercise — they make movement part of daily life through infrastructure, transportation, and community design.”

fittest city plano rankings health