Thymus orospedanus

Thymus orospedanus is a small, mat-forming aromatic subshrub of the Lamiaceae family endemic to the limestone mountains of south-eastern Spain, particularly the Sierras of Cazorla, Segura, Las Villas, and the Sierra de Orospeda from which it takes its specific name. It forms a low, woody-based, much-branched cushion five to fifteen centimetres tall, with prostrate to ascending, hairy, four-angled stems clothed in tiny opposite, sessile, elliptic to linear, ciliate, oil-gland-dotted dark green leaves that are intensely aromatic when crushed. From late spring through mid summer the flowering shoots terminate in compact, head-like cymes of small two-lipped pink to lilac flowers attractive to bees and butterflies. The plant is closely related to Thymus zygis and Thymus mastichina and favours rocky, sun-exposed, dolomitic and limestone slopes.