Thymus pulegioides L.
creeping thyme
Semi-prostrate, sometimes mat-forming, herb; stems somewhat woody at base, long-creeping and all reproductive, ± ascending towards tip, with hairs mainly confined to angles. Lvs shortly petiolate; lamina 4-8-(10) × 1-4-(5) mm, elliptic, ciliolate, otherwise glabrous except for a few long hairs at base and on petiole, dotted with oil globules. Fls terminal, in dense heads of mostly uninterrupted verticels. Bracts similar to lvs, < to slightly > calyx, green or purple. Calyx c. 3 mm long, campanulate, usually purple, nearly glabrous or nerves hairy, dotted with oil globules, with tuft of white hairs in throat; teeth of lower lip subulate, long-ciliate; teeth of upper lip triangular, minutely ciliolate. Corolla 5-6 mm long, purplish or rose, occasionally white, ± hairy outside, especially near apex of lobes; tube not or somewhat exserted; lobes all ± elliptic-oblong, those of lower lip at an acute angle to upper. Stamens exserted; anthers reddish purple. Nutlets not seen.
S.: drier parts of Marlborough and near Fairlie (Canterbury).
Europe 1906
An uncommon casual escape from cultivation, in waste, stony places, especially along roadsides, and in dry, open pastures.
FL Dec-Mar.
Creeping thyme is a widely cultivated sp. which might be expected to occur elsewhere in drier parts of the North and South Is. The records of T. serpyllum L. in Cheeseman (1906) and Allan (1940) refer to T. pulegioides; in many older European works these 2 closely related spp. were treated as a single entity.
