The strongly scented flowers are either lilac, pink-purple, magenta, up to 6 mm long and produced in clusters.

The hardy plant tolerates some pedestrian traffic and produces odors ranging from heavily herbal to lightly lemon, depending on the variety.

The leaves are 3–8 mm long in opposite pairs, nearly stalkless, with linear elliptic round-tipped blades and untoothed margins.

The flowers are 4–6 mm long and usually pink or mauve, rarely white, with a tube-like calyx and an irregular straight-tubed, hairy corolla.

Creeping and mounding variants of T. serpyllum are used as border plants and ground cover around gardens and stone paths.