Speedwell, Thyme-leaved

Information on Thyme-leaved Speedwell

Common Name: Thyme-leaved Speedwell
Scientific Name: Veronica serpyllifolia
Irish Name: Lus an treacha
Family Group: Plantaginaceae
Distribution: View Map (Courtesy of the BSBI)
Flowering Period


Click for list of all flowering by month
Thyme-leaved Speedwell is not easily confused with other wild plants on this web site.


Just take your hand lens to this little wildflower and spend a few moments enjoying its beauty.  It's a short perennial – only standing 20cm high – which grows on bare and cultivated land, including lawns.  It sprawls along the ground sending up loose spikes of pale blue flowers (5-6mm across) on erect stems. The flowers are comprised of four joined uneven petals and there are four sepals.  Its so-called oval-shaped Thyme-like leaves are small, shiny and untoothed, tapering at the base into very short stalks.  This plant blooms from April to October and is widespread.  A native plant it belongs to the family Plantaginaceae.  

My first record of this plant is in Gibletstown, Co Wexford in 2005 and I photographed it there in 2006.  

If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre

Speedwell, Thyme-leaved
Speedwell, Thyme-leaved
Speedwell, Thyme-leaved
Speedwell, Thyme-leaved