Basil Thyme - Clinopodium acinos

Often, the whole plant is only 4 cm, though large plants may be 30 cm. It spreads across the ground, only ascending when it flowers. The oval leaves are usually less than a centimetre long. The purple-mauve flowers are in whorls of around 4 or 5 and have white spots on the lower lip of the corolla.

Provide a series of photos showing the key ID features and the whole plant in its habitat. 

Open habitats in dry grassland, rocky ground or arable fields. In Britain it usually grows on calcareous soils. It is also a rare casual of waste ground, quarries and banks by roads and railways.

In flower during May, June, July, August and September.

Usually an annual herb.

England Red List: Vulnerable. GB Red List: Vulnerable..

Scarce and decreasing in VC55; threatened by habitat loss due to natural succession of open quarry habitats to scrub. Only present as a native species on limestone habitats in the east of the Vice-County

Present in the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi and Evans 1988) in 2 tetrads, and in the Flora of Rutland (Messenger 1971) in 13 tetrads.

It is listed on the current VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall and Woodward 2022) as Locally Scarce (i.e. present in 4-10 sites) but decreasing