Cat thyme

Description

Teucrium marum, commonly known as cat thyme or kitty crack, is a species of germander. Its small, oval leaves give it a thyme-like appearance, but the musty scent is quite unlike the delicate aroma of thyme. Cat thyme is a mounding, tender perennial with grey-green leaves tipped by fragrant pink flowers in summer. Teucrium marum has oval leaves, broader at the base, downy beneath, with uncut margins. It is in leaf all year. The flowers, appearing between July and September in the northern hemisphere, are in one-sided spikes, the corollas are crimson in color. The leaves and younger branches when fresh, on being rubbed emit a volatile, pungent, aromatic smell, which excites sneezing, but in taste they are somewhat bitter, accompanied with a sensation of heat. Teucrium marum will live through the winter in the open, on a dry soil and in a good situation, when the frosts are not severe, though it is frequently killed in hard winters if unprotected by mats or other covering. Older plants can shrub 3 or 4 feet high if grown in a mild climate. Teucrium marum has a similar effect on cats to catnip. Teucrium is a cosmopolitan genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae, commonly known as germanders. Plants in this genus are perennial herbs or shrubs, with branches that are more or less square in cross-section, leaves arranged in opposite pairs, and flowers arranged in thyrses, the corolla with mostly white to cream-coloured, lobed petals. Plants in the genus Teucrium are perennial herbs or shrubs with four-cornered stems, often with simple hairs and sessile glands. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, simple or with three leaflets sometimes with lobed or serrated edges. The flowers are arranged in a thyrse, sometimes in a cyme in leaf axils. The flowers have five more or less similar sepals fused at the base, and the corolla is white or cream-coloured with five lobes forming two lips. The upper lip is usually much reduced in size and the lower lip has three lobes, the central lobe usually larger than the side lobes. There are four stamens attached near the base of the petals and the fruit is a schizocarp with four segments. The genus Teucrium was first formally described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus in Species Plantarum. The name Teucrium was used by Pedanius Dioscorides for several species in this genus, and is believed to refer to King Teucer of Troy who used the plant in his medicine.