A zesty herby is how thyme can be best described. This herb, like many others, is a part of the mint family. It is a perfect blend of peppery mint taste with hints of lime flavor and a slight bitter hue to it.
It is not just a culinary herb but is equally important in the medicinal field too. Various types of thyme are used for multiple culinary uses, mostly to garnish and add their unique aroma and flavor to the dish.
Thyme is known to grow in well-drained soils, and it often is seen flourishing in hot and warm climates. Apart from the types of thyme being classified based on its appearance, this plant can well be categorized based on its uses too.
Types of Thyme
The different thyme varieties known today are detailed below:
1) Lemon Thyme
A perfect herb with beautiful yellowish-green foliage and subtle hints of lemon to its aroma. The taste of lemon thyme, though, is much like common thyme but with a lemony twist to it.
2) Woolly Thyme
This thyme has beautiful intimately-knit leaves that look silvery-white in appearance.
3) Mint Thyme
It is a thyme plant that is perfect for ground coverage. It’s lilac flowers make it a sight to enjoy while even without the flowers, its minty aroma and green foliage are beautiful as well.
4) Elfin Thyme
A ground coverage thyme with beautiful and eye-pleasing lilac-purple flowers. Its leaves are spaced uniformly, and it is one of the slow-growing thyme varieties.
5) Annie Hall Thyme
This thyme plant has dark green leaves. The leaves are small, and this thyme is a variety of the ground coverage thyme.
6) Lime Thyme
It has beautiful lime green, bright leaves. The aroma is the reason behind the name, which is much like lime, citrus, and zingy. It is an ornamental herb and is used much less for its culinary purposes.
7) Lavender Thyme
One of the most – sturdy thyme plants is the Lavender thyme. It has a clean and robust aroma of lavender.
8) Pink Chintz Thyme
This thyme has silvery green leaves and is perfect for growing in smaller places. It has tiny leaves.
9) White Moss Thyme
White moss thyme is called so due to its white blossoms. As these plants are almost 2 inches high; thus, they often seem like spikes over the green foliage.
10) Hall’s Woolly Thyme
Hall’s woolly thyme is a flat ground coverage with no flowers or blooms at all.
11) Coconut Thyme
It is almost a creeper with dense foliage. It is usually covered with flowers during summers.
12) Lemon Frost Thyme
The aroma of zesty lemon and an ornamental perfect for decorating your garden and spreading a fresh fragrance.
13) Loveyanus Thyme
Its flowers are the most beautiful ones, which are almost the size of a golf ball and big silver-green leaves, which are pointed yet soft.
14) Leprechaun Thyme
This thyme is grassy green in its color. Its slight lemony aroma is calm and relaxing. It produces very few flowers.
15) Highland Cream Thyme
A variegated thyme variety. The highland cream thus has much less chlorophyll, which gives it a pinkish-white hue.
16) Silver needle Thyme
Unlike its name, these thyme plants are soft and appear like silvery needles and are perfect to be planted on short walls and edgings.
17) Reiter’s Thyme
One of the fastest spreading ground coverage thymes with pretty flowers. The flowers often dry off and shed, leaving behind bright yet dark green foliage.
18) Creeping Pink Thyme
Abundantly leafy thyme with beautiful pink flowers creeping to form a dense ground cover. It has hairy and succulent leaves.
19) Doone Valley Thyme
A variegated variety with the lemony aroma. It is used in cooking but loses its scent during the process.
20) Pink Lemonade Thyme
It is a non-variegated thyme that carries a beautiful lemony scent with it. It has lovely dark green leaves with bold pink flowers.
21) Silver Thyme
A perfect culinary herb with the best thyme aroma and not so astringent flavor.
22) English Thyme
English thyme is also called the garden thyme is the common thyme used for cooking. It is readily available, and further is the base for many various types of thyme.
23) Hi-ho Silver Thyme
Just like the silver thyme, the hi ho thyme forms a great culinary herb and can easily be added to your kitchen gardens.
24) Caraway Thyme
Caraway thyme carries along with its beautiful ground covering foliage, the aroma of the caraway seeds. It has lovely deep green leaves stemming from red stems.
25) Italian Oregano Thyme
It produces one of the best-flavored oreganos on a 12-inch high plant.
26) Juniper Thyme
A thyme shrub, which grows up to a height of around 6 inches and has leaves like stiff silver needles. It has a pungent taste and aroma and is a perfect culinary herb.
27) Orange Balsam Thyme
The orange Balsam thyme has an astringent aroma associated with it and is a great herb used in cooking.
28) Archer’s Gold Thyme
This type of thyme has beautiful yellowish-green leaves and is a perfect garnish for chicken dishes. It has a lemon-like aroma associated with it.
29) Thyme Broadleaved Plant
The broadleaved thyme does not only flaunt its large leaves but, its traditional thyme flavor makes it a perfect herb addition to any delicacy.
30) Thyme Camphor Herb Plant
Its herbaceous flavor makes it a perfect addition to robust meat curries.
31) French Thyme
It is an attractive shrub that has white blooms to flaunt. It’s chopped leaves are often added to soups and stews to enhance their flavor.
32) Ruby Glow Thyme
It has beautiful dark green leaves accompanied by almost crimson bi flowers. This culinary herb finds its use as a garnish in chicken and fish delicacies to add lemony aroma to them.
Conclusion
Thyme is not just an ornamental or a herb that accentuates the taste of your favorite delicacies but, it is a great medicinal herb too. It is used in curing indigestion and arthritis, bronchitis and is also an excellent diuretic. Thus, accommodate one in your garden and enjoy its benefits on your mind, body, and soul.