Quendel

Wild thyme beautifully decorates your garden in bright colors, emits an aromatic scent, and can also bring this to your plate. This versatile ornamental and medicinal plant belongs not only in every herb garden but also in the kitchen.

 

Wild thyme (Thymus serpyllum) is also known as field thyme or broad-leaved thyme. This semi-shrub is somewhat the wild relative of thyme. It was already well known in antiquity. Hildegard of Bingen described the herb as Quenula.

While thyme feels more at home in the Mediterranean climate of the Mediterranean region, wild thyme also grows as a wild plant here in this country and prefers locations that seem unsuitable for other plants. It likes sunny, rocky, but also sandy places – which explains another of its common names: sand thyme. It likes to settle on nutrient-poor rocky spots that are richly sunlit, even in barren mountain landscapes, and can form extensive ground covers from which the spicy-aromatic scent of wild thyme emanates. In your own garden, it can save you work and bring beauty.

 

Wild thyme is rich in essential oils – wild thyme oil (Oleum Serphyllii) – which is also often used therapeutically. In addition, there is a wide range of other secondary plant compounds, including the following:

• Bitter substances
• Borneol
• Carvacrol
• Citronellol
• Flavones
• Tannins
• Tannic acid
• Geraniol
• Camphene
• Pinene
• Terpineol
• Thymol

This covers a range of beneficial plant compounds that you can enjoy consuming.

 

Wild thyme can be used similarly to its relative, thyme. Harvested before it blooms, it releases its hearty aroma in a variety of dishes in the kitchen. With its almost piquant note, it pairs excellently with salads, potato dishes, and meat and fish meals. Hildegard of Bingen recommended adding two to four knife tips of wild thyme to the dish and letting it cook along. You can use it fresh or dried for seasoning. Its frequent presence in sausages is explained by its common name, sausage herb.

As an ornamental plant, wild thyme is ideal for rock gardens due to its low soil requirements and preference for sunny locations. With its floral splendor, it bathes them in a beautiful violet. Wild thyme is also great as a bee pasture in gardens.

Its use as a medicinal plant is close to that of thyme. In Hildegard medicine, the saint recommended preparations from wild thyme for skin problems, considering it a suitable remedy for beautiful skin. She treated eczema, as well as impurities and acne, with the previously cooked herb. Wild thyme is also said to relieve bruises, wounds, and skin inflammations.

Another important area of treatment is its use for colds. The anti-inflammatory and antibiotic properties attributed to it are said to be healing in infections and coughs, similar to thyme. A cough syrup with wild thyme is even said to help with irritant and whooping cough. 

The antispasmodic effect helps not only with cough illnesses but is also recommended for menstrual complaints. Wild thyme is commonly known as a women’s herb. It was used more often in childbirth in the past, which earned it the names finger herb and Our Lady’s straw. Please remember not to take wild thyme during pregnancy without medical advice.

Additionally, wild thyme is said to help with digestive complaints like bloating and to get digestion going again. It is especially helpful with hard-to-digest meals. 

 

If you have taken on too much gardening work, you can gladly use ground covers like wild thyme to make the garden easier to maintain. Ground covers cover the soil so thoroughly that no sunlight can reach through to nourish weeds. A beautiful carpet of wild thyme requires hardly any work and emits an aromatic, enchanting scent. At the same time, wild thyme can grow over stones, removing spots where heat accumulates from the garden. Very practical is that wild thyme carpets are trampling-resistant and should occasionally even be walked on.

For a ground-covering carpet, plant the individual wild thyme plants quite close together and stop vertical growth early by pruning every autumn/late summer. By stopping vertical growth here, the plants spread out sideways and cover your ground.

 

As already mentioned, Hildegard of Bingen was familiar with and used wild thyme. The quote from her is: “If a person has diseased flesh (tissue), so that their flesh (skin) blossoms out like mange, they should take wild thyme and eat it often cooked with meat or vegetables, and the tissue (flesh) of their body will be healed and cleansed from within.”

Hildegard of Bingen already recommended wild thyme for beautiful skin. Her recommendation was to cook wild thyme regularly. Due to the same cleansing effect, Hildegard of Bingen believed wild thyme helps with colds.

 

Wild thyme and thyme are very closely related, which is why wild thyme is also called broad-leaved thyme. They both belong to the genus Thymus in the mint family (Lamiaceae). Botanically, they descend from the same ancestor.

They also share the aromatic scent they emit at their growing site. That is why both herbs are used in cooking. Lastly, both have properties as medicinal plants and have been traditional remedies. Both herbs are used in traditional practices for digestive issues, skin problems, and colds.

They differ in their growth form. While wild thyme grows close to the ground, thyme tends to grow upwards. They also differ greatly in their preferred locations. Although their aromatic scent is similar, their taste varies more widely.

 

As a perennial plant, wild thyme remains evergreen and grows up to ten centimeters high. It keeps its small oval leaves, which are arranged oppositely on its hairy stem, even in winter. The funnel-shaped flowers, usually violet but sometimes pink, create an attractive sight during the flowering period from July to September. Especially when wild thyme spreads as a wide carpet on the ground.

 

Wild thyme is native to Europe and is therefore ideal for cultivation in your own garden. Choose a relatively dry and sunny location with rather well-drained soil. Slopes, roadside edges, rock crevices, and poor meadows are typical growing areas. Its roots can also access deeper water reserves.

In spring, you should sow the seeds. A distance of about 30 cm should be maintained between the individual plants. One square meter can accommodate around 10 plants.

You only need to water wild thyme rarely, only when it is really dry. In principle, wild thyme prefers dry soils. Occasionally, some compost is beneficial, but more is not necessary. After the flowering period in late summer / autumn, you can remove the shoot tips.

 

Wild thyme was for a long time a very popular medicinal plant. We have records from antiquity that describe the health-promoting properties of wild thyme. These records report positive effects on skin problems, colds, and digestive issues. Hildegard of Bingen also introduced wild thyme into medieval monastery medicine. Wild thyme has thus been a popular medicinal and spice plant for humanity for thousands of years.

If you want to dry and store wild thyme from your own garden, you first need to harvest the herb. Simply cut as many shoots or branches as the plant can still survive without problems. Ideally, cut wild thyme just before flowering and hang the plant parts up. If you want to store wild thyme for a long time, fermentation is recommended afterward. This way, you can store wild thyme for quite a while without air exposure.

Almost none at all! Even people without a green thumb can easily plant wild thyme in their garden. Wild thyme doesn’t need much water, rarely needs fertilizing, and a well-drained sandy soil is sufficient. So if you don’t have a medicinal plant at home yet, you should plant wild thyme.

Wild thyme does not grow as tall as its close relative, thyme. On average, the subshrubs reach 12 - 15 cm in height.

Wild thyme is a typical summer bloomer that enriches colorful bee pastures. Sometimes its flowers open as early as May, but they usually bloom until September. 

No, you should actually avoid that. Thyme can, for example, trigger premature labor, and wild thyme also seems to affect the nervous system. So if you absolutely want to consume wild thyme during pregnancy, consult a doctor beforehand.