Twenty Horticulture Club students and four faculty members from Iowa State will leave for Oklahoma City this morning to help with a memorial tree planting, said Jeff Iles, assistant professor of horticulture.

Students from ISU’s Horticulture Club will help plant shade and flower trees on the Oklahoma City capitol grounds to remember those who died in the federal building bombing earlier this year.

The bomb killed more than 170 people, including at least 16 children. The bombing is considered the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil in history.

One tree will be planted for each person who died in the bombing — a littleleaf linden tree for each adult and a prairie-fire crabapple tree for each child, Iles said.

The ISU delegation will join other students from the Hawkeye Institute of Technology, Kirkwood Community College, Des Moines Area Community College and Indian Hills Community College, and other Iowans in the horticulture industry to help with the tree planting.

The tree-planting effort is led by the Iowa State Horticultural Society.

Iles said this is a way of returning the goodwill Iowa received in the flood of 1993.

“The state’s horticulturists are trying to repay Oklahomans for their assistance to Iowans during the floods of 1993,” Iles said. “We’re trying to put something positive on the tragedy down there.”

The idea was conceived by Dan Cooper, a state horticulturist who died recently, Iles said. A formal dedication will be held Sunday morning in Oklahoma City.