The patterns of morphological variation of Thymus in Korea were examined using numerical analyses to determine the species boundary. Univariate and principal components analyses using 26 leafy and calyx characters revealed the presence of three different groups in Korean Thymus these correspond Cheju type having short and narrow leaves and small lobes of upper calyx, Ullung type having long and wide leaves and short-ciliated lobes of upper calyx, and Peninsula type having relatively large lobes of upper calyx. These results suggest that they should be recognized as three separate taxa, such as Thymus quinquecostatus Celakovsky var. quinquecostatus, T. quinquecostatus var. magnas (Nakai) Kitamura, and a new taxon, respectively.
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