Ivy League schools covered in Virginia Creeper, not ivy

If truth be known, the hallowed walls of Ivy League colleges are not covered with ivy; they're covered with Virginia creeper. Still, the name "Creeper League" colleges wouldn't conjure up visions of institutions for higher learning.

This is not to disparage the plant itself, now coming into its full glory, visually igniting walls and trees. Virginia creeper's crimson leaves are the first to give autumn an enthusiastic hello. The lanky vines cling to tree bark or walls by means of holdfasts, which resemble and function like small suction cups.

Although growing dense enough to hide walls, or to wrap around trunks and dangle from limbs of trees, Virginia creeper seems to do harm to neither.

Through spring and summer, the plant foreshadows its autumnal glory. The unfolding leaves have a reddish hue, which the leafstalks retain throughout summer. And after the leaves drop in autumn, clusters of quarter-inch berries, each blue-black and with a powdery, white bloom, hang on. Birds, especially bluebirds, are fond of the fruits.

Although it grows wild throughout much of the United States, Virginia creeper is still worth planting. Plant it to ramble over and cover up an unsightly bank. Or plant it at the base of a wall to quickly give that wall a feeling of venerable age. Virginia creeper is fast-growing, sending out more than 10 feet of new growth each year if growing conditions are good. And "good growing conditions" for this plant means almost any soil in either full sun or shade. The plant even tolerates polluted city air.

A related species, called Boston ivy, is also worth planting. The most obvious difference between this Asian native and Virginia creeper is that each leaf of the former species has three lobes, whereas each leaf of the latter is divided into five leaflets. That "ivy" in Boston ivy might have you believe that the walls of Harvard are indeed covered with ivy -- Boston ivy. Nope. Boston ivy was introduced into this country in 1862, well after the first bricks were laid in Harvard square.

In fact, the word "ivy" lacks precise botanical meaning, and is applied to any number of vining plants. Virginia creeper has also been called "ivy" -- "American ivy," by the British. But it's neither ivy nor Virginia creeper that led to the name "Ivy League." That name came about because there were originally only four Ivy League colleges, and "four" in Roman numerals is IV.