Thymus praecoxOpiz

mother of thymewild thyme

WFO wfo-0000324555 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Thymus praecox, photographed by Elias
fig. a Elias, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-11 / obs. 205236307
Thymus praecox, photographed by Martin Kalfatovic
fig. b Martin Kalfatovic, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203798347
Thymus praecox, photographed by Zeke Marshall
fig. c Zeke Marshall, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203172351
Thymus praecox, photographed by Anne Thomson
fig. d Anne Thomson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202742309
Thymus praecox, photographed by Ethan Lutterer
fig. e Ethan Lutterer, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205105070
Thymus praecox, photographed by jpuf
fig. f jpuf, CC0 1.0 / obs. 172743460
Thymus praecox, photographed by Marco Mussita
fig. g Marco Mussita, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159385927
Thymus praecox, photographed by Alan Weakley
fig. h Alan Weakley, CC0 1.0 / obs. 149601707

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 29 botanical countries

Regions where Thymus praecox is native: Iran, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia-Slovakia, Føroyar, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sicilia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Greenland IranNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeAlbaniaAustriaBelgiumBulgariaCzechia-SlovakiaFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIcelandIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSiciliaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandGreenland Føroyar
Native distribution of Thymus praecox, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Føroyar FOR
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Iceland ICE
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Netherlands NET
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Iran IRN ASIA-TEMPERATE
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Greenland GNL NORTHERN AMERICA

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 152 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Thymus agoustensis Formánek
  • Thymus albanus Heinr.Braun ex Wettst.
  • Thymus albanus subsp. magellensis Ronniger
  • Thymus albanus subvar. korabensis Degen
  • Thymus albanus subvar. lumbardensis (Ronniger) Diklic
  • Thymus albanus subvar. prokletijensis (Ronniger) Diklic
  • Thymus albanus subvar. schefferi (Ronniger) Diklic
  • Thymus albanus var. lumbardensis Ronniger
  • Thymus albanus var. prokletijensis Ronniger
  • Thymus albanus var. schefferi Ronniger
  • Thymus alpicola Schur
  • Thymus alpigenus (A.Kern. ex Heinr.Braun) Ronniger
  • Thymus amoenus Sennen
  • Thymus angustifolius var. silvicola Wimm. & Grab.
  • Thymus arcticus (Durand) Ronniger
  • Thymus badensis Heinr.Braun ex L.Walz
  • Thymus balcanus Borbás
  • Thymus balcanus subvar. arnautorum (Ronniger) Diklic
  • Thymus balcanus var. albiflorus Velen.
  • Thymus balcanus var. arnautorum Ronniger
  • Thymus balcanus var. beckii Ronniger
  • Thymus balcanus var. brevidens Velen.
  • Thymus balcanus var. decorus Ronniger
  • Thymus balcanus var. micevskii Matevski

and 128 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.