Mother of thyme

Thymus praecox, the creeping or mother-of-thyme, is a low, mat-forming aromatic dwarf shrub of the family Lamiaceae, with prostrate woody stems that root as they spread and short ascending flowering shoots only 2 to 10 cm tall. The tiny leaves are oval to spoon-shaped, dark green, leathery and dotted with aromatic oil glands, often fringed with hairs near the base. The small two-lipped flowers, ranging from rose-purple to pink, are crowded into compact rounded heads at the shoot tips and are much visited by bees, blooming in summer. The crushed foliage is fragrant. Native across Europe, creeping thyme grows on dry, sunny, well-drained grassland, heaths, dunes, rocky slopes and short turf. Closely allied to wild thyme, it has been used similarly as an aromatic herb and in domestic herbal remedies.