Thymus pulegioidesL.

Large Thymelarge thymelemon thyme

WFO wfo-0000324607 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Thymus pulegioides, photographed by Marc Riera
fig. a Marc Riera, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-06 / obs. 203794013
Thymus pulegioides, photographed by Marco Mussita
fig. b Marco Mussita, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202209054
Thymus pulegioides, photographed by Todd Patterson
fig. c Todd Patterson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200746075
Thymus pulegioides, photographed by Branislav Tej
fig. d Branislav Tej, CC0 1.0 / obs. 199109958
Thymus pulegioides, photographed by Lynn Harper
fig. e Lynn Harper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 192555960
Thymus pulegioides, photographed by E. A.
fig. f E. A., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 166302167
Thymus pulegioides, photographed by Daniel Linzbauer
fig. g Daniel Linzbauer, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 166234926
Thymus pulegioides, photographed by lejones417
fig. h lejones417, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 162815600

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 30 botanical countries

Regions where Thymus pulegioides is native: Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sicilia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine AlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSiciliaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraine
Native distribution of Thymus pulegioides, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Netherlands NET
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR

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.

Flowering 462 in flower of 491 examined

Peak flowering in Nov. Each bar is the share of Thymus pulegioides observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 462 of 491 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 3 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 126 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.

  • Serpyllum chamaedrys (Fr.) Fourr.
  • Serpyllum lanuginosum (Mill.) Fourr.
  • Thymus alpestris var. praeflorens Ronniger
  • Thymus amplificatus (Schur) Dalla Torre & Sarnth.
  • Thymus callitrichifolius Sennen
  • Thymus chamaedrys Fr.
  • Thymus chamaedrys subsp. montanus (Trevir.) Nyman
  • Thymus chamaedrys var. glabratus (Hoffmanns. & Link) Lange
  • Thymus chamaedrys var. mughicola Beck
  • Thymus chamaedrys var. parvifolius Opiz ex Borbás
  • Thymus chamaedrys var. pulegioides (L.) Nyman
  • Thymus chamaedrys var. rochelianus (Čelak.) Nyman
  • Thymus clandestinus Schur
  • Thymus danubialis (Simonk.) Simonk.
  • Thymus delicatulus Sennen
  • Thymus effusus Host
  • Thymus enervius Klokov
  • Thymus flexicaulis Sennen
  • Thymus glaber Mill.
  • Thymus glabratus Hoffmanns. & Link
  • Thymus istriacus Heinr.Braun
  • Thymus jaquetianus (Ronniger) Debray
  • Thymus juranyianus Borbás
  • Thymus lanuginosus Mill.

and 102 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.