Thymus serpyllumL.

breckland thymecreeping thymewild thyme

WFO wfo-0000324739 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Thymus serpyllum, photographed by Yann Kemper
fig. a Yann Kemper, CC0 1.0 / 2022-06-07 / obs. 204131339
Thymus serpyllum, photographed by Vesa Oikonen
fig. b Vesa Oikonen, CC0 1.0 / obs. 142622390
Thymus serpyllum, photographed by Вячеслав Юсупов
fig. c Вячеслав Юсупов, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 141262418
Thymus serpyllum, photographed by Вячеслав Юсупов
fig. d Вячеслав Юсупов, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 141263355
Thymus serpyllum, photographed by Вячеслав Юсупов
fig. e Вячеслав Юсупов, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 141256536
Thymus serpyllum, photographed by Gunner Kjerulf Poulsen
fig. f Gunner Kjerulf Poulsen, CC0 1.0 / obs. 140208554
Thymus serpyllum, photographed by Michael Hansen
fig. g Michael Hansen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 149175285
Thymus serpyllum, photographed by Grzegorz Grzejszczak
fig. h Grzegorz Grzejszczak, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 167153500

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 22 botanical countries

Regions where Thymus serpyllum is native: West Siberia, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Ukraine West SiberiaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyHungaryNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayPolandRomaniaSwedenUkraine
Native distribution of Thymus serpyllum, 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
Austria AUT EUROPE
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Hungary HUN
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
Poland POL
Romania ROM
Sweden SWE
Ukraine UKR
West Siberia WSB ASIA-TEMPERATE

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 174 in flower of 191 examined

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Thymus serpyllum 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. 174 of 191 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 7 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 156 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.

  • Cunila thymoides L.
  • Hedeoma thymoides (L.) Pers.
  • Origanum serpyllum (L.) Kuntze
  • Serpyllum angustifolium (Pers.) Fourr.
  • Serpyllum citri-odora Pall.
  • Serpyllum vulgare Fourr.
  • Thymus acicularis Besser
  • Thymus adscendens Bernh. ex Link
  • Thymus affinis Vis.
  • Thymus albidus Opiz
  • Thymus angulosus Dulac
  • Thymus angustifolius Pers.
  • Thymus angustifolius f. curvifolius Wimm. & Grab.
  • Thymus angustifolius f. microcephalus Wimm. & Grab.
  • Thymus angustifolius f. sabuletorum Wimm. & Grab.
  • Thymus angustifolius f. silvicola Wimm. & Grab.
  • Thymus angustifolius var. empetroides Wimm. & Grab.
  • Thymus angustifolius var. ericoides Wimm. & Grab.
  • Thymus angustifolius var. inolens Dumort.
  • Thymus angustifolius var. intermedius Becker
  • Thymus angustifolius var. linearifolius Wimm. & Grab.
  • Thymus angustifolius var. major Wimm. & Grab.
  • Thymus angustifolius var. minor Wimm. & Grab.
  • Thymus angustifolius var. pulchellus Boenn.

and 132 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.