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Thymus
Broad leaved Thyme Thymus pulegioides
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae (unranked): Angiosperms (unranked): Eudicots (unranked): Asterids Order: Lamiales Family: Lamiaceae Genus: Thymus L.
Species
About 350 species, including: Thymus adamovicii Thymus altaicus Thymus amurensis Thymus bracteosus Thymus broussonetii Thymus caespititius Thymus camphoratus Thymus capitatus Thymus capitellatus Thymus camphoratus Thymus carnosus Thymus cephalotus Thymus cherlerioides Thymus ciliatus Thymus cilicicus Thymus cimicinus Thymus comosus Thymus comptus Thymus curtus Thymus decussatus Thymus disjunctus Thymus doerfleri Thymus glabrescens Thymus herba-barona Thymus hirsutus Thymus hyemalis Thymus inaequalis Thymus integer Thymus lanuginosus Thymus leucotrichus Thymus longicaulis Thymus longiflorus Thymus mandschuricus Thymus marschallianus Thymus mastichina Thymus membranaceus Thymus mongolicus Thymus montanus Thymus moroderi Thymus nervulosus Thymus nummularis Thymus odoratissimus Thymus pallasianus Thymus pannonicus Thymus praecox Thymus proximus Thymus pseudolanuginosus (woolly thyme) Thymus pulegioides Thymus quinquecostatus Thymus richardii Thymus serpyllum Thymus striatus Thymus thracicus Thymus villosus Thymus vulgaris (common thyme) Thymus zygis

The genus Thymus, with the common English name thyme, contains about 350¹ species of aromatic perennial herbaceous plants and sub-shrubs to 40 cm tall, in the family Lamiaceae. Members are native to temperate regions in Europe, North Africa and Asia. The stems tend to be narrow or even wiry; the leaves are evergreen in most species, arranged in opposite pairs, oval, entire, and small, 4-20 mm long, and usually aromatic. The flowers are in dense terminal heads, with an uneven calyx, with the upper lip three-lobed, and the lower cleft; the corolla is tubular, 4-10 mm long, and white, pink or purple.

The botanic name and the English common name are both derived from an old Greek name for an uncertain aromatic herb.

There is some confusion over the naming and taxonomy of some species and Mrs Margaret Easter has compiled a list of synonyms for cultivated species and cultivars.²

Several members of the genus are cultivated as culinary herbs or ornamentals, when they are also called thyme after its best known species, common thyme.

Thymus species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) insect species including Chionodes distinctella and the Coleophora case-bearers C. lixella, C. niveicostella, C. serpylletorum and C. struella (the latter three feed exclusively on Thymus).

References

1. ^ "Thymus Linnaeus". Flora of China.
2. ^ Mrs Margaret Easter. "Thymus Synonyms". Retrieved on 2008-07-14.

• L. H. Bailey; Manual of Cultivated Plants.

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 22 December 2008, at 07:06.

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