This is the plant above all others which reminds me of hot summer days, the buzzing of the insects, the fragrance of wild flowers and a lazy time eating a picnic lunch in the sand dunes of Newborough Warren on Anglesey. It sprawls over rocks in hills and mountains or in dune systems at sea level and grows happily in cooperation with other plants. Generally it is a mat forming plant and you tend to see it with hundreds of little mauve or purplish flowers. In the large photo below the blue weed growing in amongst the Thymus polytrichus is the extremely rare alpine Gentiana nivalis (Snow gentian) as this photo was taken at over 900 metres on the grassy slopes below the Ben Lawers corrie.

Our commonest Wild Thyme is now called Thymus polytrichus ssp brittanicus according to New Flora of the British Isles Edition 3 (2010) by Clive Stace but in the not too distant past it has been known as Thymus drucei, Thymus praecox and Thymus serpyllum which explains the variety of names you find books about wild flowers.

Thymus polytrichus ssp brittanicus grows all over the British Isles although it is less common in the south east of England where Thymus pulegioides (Large Thyme) is dominant. In Ireland it is common around the coastal edges but less common in the centre of the island. In Scotland Wild Thyme is at home populating the low lying lands, rocks, mountain crevices on the mainland and on the outer islands including Shetland and St Kilda.

LHS: Newborough Warren, Anglesey, 12th July 2011 RHS: Near Cape Wrath Ferry, north Scotland 2nd July 2011

Added on Christmas Day 2004, updated 15th February 2012, updated 9th January 2015