| Thymus L. | |
| Publ. & Syn. | L., Sp. Pl.: 590 (1753). |
| Notes | Thymus is a taxonomically difficult genus. A tradition in northwestern Europe has been to accept two widely circumscribed species, T. praecox and T. serpyllum, both with several geographical races (e.g., Jalas 1947, 1970, 1972; Pigott 1954, 1955; Hämet-Ahti et al. 1998; Mossberg and Stenberg 2003; Elven et al. 2005). The tradition farther south and east in Europe and in Russia has rather been to accept more numerous and more narrowly circumscribed species. This difference influences our treatment as Nordic authors have followed the first tradition, whereas Ronniger (1924), Klokov (1954), Menitsky (1980), Probatova (1995), and Doronkin (1997) have followed the second tradition for the taxa that reach the Arctic outside the North Atlantic and Nordic regions (Ronniger also for the North Atlantic taxa). The northeastern Russian and Siberian taxa have uniformly been treated as several species, the four included by Menitsky (1980) as a T. reverdattoanus aggregate. Doronkin (1997) reported more species to reach the Arctic in Siberia than did Menitsky (1980). Three of these are included below, whereas one was reported in general for "arctic Yakutia" without specified localities and is only mentioned here as a possibly arctic species: T. ochotensis Klokov, Bot. Mater. Gerb. Bot. Inst. Komarova Akad. Nauk SSSR 16: 300 (1954). |
| Chromosomes | 12-ca. 100 (2x-ca. 16x). - Far East, Canada, U.S.A. - Several reports for "arvensis", "borealis", "canadensis", "sachalinensis", and "villosa". The majority of reports for M. canadensis are of 2n = 54 (9x) or 96 (16x). |
| Geography | Asian (NE) - amphi-Beringian - North American: ALA CAN. |
| Parent taxon | Lamiaceae |
| Child taxa |
Thymus extremus Klokov Thymus karavaëvii Doronkin Thymus mongolicus (Ronniger) Ronniger Thymus oxyodontus Klokov Thymus pauciflorus Klokov Thymus praecox Opiz Thymus reverdattoanus Serg. Thymus serpyllum L. Thymus sibiricus (Serg.) Klokov & Shost. |
| PAF ID | 7711 |