Wild thyme is native to most of Europe and North Africa, where it grows on thin soils, sandy heaths, rocky outcrops, banks and roadsides. It is one of the plants on which large blue and common blue butterfly caterpillars feed. VASCAN has no accepted Thymus serpyllum for Canada and treats creeping thymes such as T. pulegioides (present in Quebec) and T. praecox as the names in use, so plants sold as T. serpyllum may belong to one of these.
The name serpyllum is an old Latin word for creeping thyme, and the plant has long been used as a mild-flavoured culinary herb and to upholster fragrant herb seats. It is grown today as a ground cover, a rock garden plant and a low-traffic lawn substitute.