Thymus camphoratus

Thymus camphoratus, known locally in Portugal as tomilho do mar, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family, Lamiaceae, and is endemic to southwest Portugal. It grows as an erect subshrub about 15 to 30 centimetres tall, with stems that are square in section and carry very short hairs. The leaves are small, ovate-triangular or rhomboidal, rolled under at the edges in the upper half, whitish and woolly beneath and dotted with yellowish glands. The flowers are pink or purple and are gathered in compact head-like clusters beneath pale pinkish or reddish bracts, with purple anthers that project from the flower. The plant has 15 pairs of chromosomes. It lives on heathland and dry scrub on stabilised limestone dune sands very close to the coast, particularly in the Southwest Alentejo and Vicentine Coast Natural Park.