MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC CROPS (2+1)

Description of the plant

Thyme is a low, evergreen perennial under-shrub reaching a height of 20-30cm whereas, wild thyme (T.serpyllum L.) creeps on the soil surface and has broad leaves with a weaker odour. The roots are fairly robust and the stems are branched. The former has oblong lancelolate, sessile leaves 10 mm x 3mm in size with orange-brown, glandular dots and is coriaceous. The young leaves are slightly woolly. The flowers are small purplish or bluish to almost white, united in spikes at the tips of the branches and have a bilabiate, tube-like calyx and a bilabiate, tubular corolla with a 3-lobed lower lip. The fruit is a nutlet brown 4-sectioned, smooth and is found in the remains of the calyx. The entire plant is aromatic.