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Thymus pulegioides
Also called Large Thyme, Large Garden, Wild Thyme, Large Wild Thyme, Creeping Thyme
Lemon thyme (Thymus pulegioides) is a low, creeping, evergreen subshrub from Europe with lemon-scented leaves and pink or mauve summer flowers. It thrives in full sun and very well-drained, lean soil, and is used as groundcover and in cooking.
Thymus pulegioides, common names broad-leaved thyme or lemon thyme, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, native to Europe. Growing to 5–25 cm (2–10 in) tall by 25 cm (10 in) wide, it is a small spreading subshrub with strongly aromatic leaves, and lilac pink flowers in early summer. The specific epithet pulegioides highlights its similarity to another species within Lamiaceae, Mentha pulegium (pennyroyal).
Suitable for cultivation in any well-drained alkaline or neutral soil in full sun, this ornamental thyme is useful as groundcover, but can also be used like thyme in cooking. Numerous cultivars have been selected, of which 'Aureus', with lemon-scented gold leaves, and 'Bertram Anderson' have both gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Broad-leaved thyme is native to temperate parts of Europe. It grows in rough places on light, sparse soils. These include hills, rocky outcrops, gravels, sandy places, wasteground and roadsides.
Algerian Thyme · Wild Thyme · Spanish Lemon Thyme · Azores Thyme · Camphor Thyme · Thymus · Thymus capitellatus · Portuguese Thyme · Lemon Thyme · Thymus dubjanskyi · Caraway Thyme · Hyemalis Thyme
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Thymus pulegioides by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
