The Thymus Information Page




Introduction

Overview of Sections

Sections

North Africa, Ethiopia and the Canary Islands

Using keys

Glossary

Bibliography

Links

Introduction to the genus Thymus L. ( Thyme )

 
 
 
This site contains information on the genus of flowering plants Thymus, (Thyme) in the family Labiatae (Mint family) and is aimed at amateur botanists and gardeners. It covers taxonomy (the classification of plants) and geographical distribution and includes some species descriptions and keys for identification to help those without access to relevant information.


Thymus is one of the eight most important genera as regards number of species within the Labiate family. This family comprises more or less 220 genera. Thymus belongs to the tribe Mentheae, subfamily Nepetoideae. Although the number of species within this genus varies depending on the taxonomic viewpoint, if we adopt a synthetic criterion, it comprises more than 200 species. It is only exceeded in number of species by Salvia, Hyptis, Scutellaria, Stachys, Teucrium, Nepeta or Plectranthus.

Thymus is distributed in the Old World and on the coasts of Greenland, from the Macaronesian Region (Canary Islands, Madeira and Azores), Northwest Africa north of the Sahara Desert (Morocco, Algeria, Tunis and Libya), the mountains of Ethiopia and the southwest Arabian Mountains, the Sinai Peninsula, through the arid regions of West Asia up to the Himalayas, and reaching the limits of the tropical region up to East Asia and Japan. In the North it occurs in Siberia and Northern Europe all the way to the coasts of Greenland. Map

Introduced populations, now growing wild are known to exist in regions as distant as Canada (Thymus serpyllum and Thymus pulegioides), Chile (Thymus vulgaris) or New Zealand (Thymus pulegioides and Thymus vulgaris).

However the central area of this genus surrounds the Mediterranean Sea. According to JALAS (1971), Thymus is divided into eight sections: Micantes, Mastichina, Piperella, Teucrioides, Pseudothymbra, Thymus, Hyphodromi and Serpyllum. Only species of two sections occur outside this area. The western Mediterranean region seems to be the centre of origin of the genus. Species of seven sections inhabit the Iberian Peninsula and Northwest Africa and five of them are endemic.

The information given in the introduction, overview and sections parts is taken from Morales, R.(1997). Synopsis of the genus Thymus L. in the Mediterranean area. Lagascalia 19(1-2): 249-262 with the kind permission of the author.