Putkanda / Ox Knee
Achyranthes bidentata
- Habit
- Herb
- Found in India
- Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya & more
- Flowering
- Throughout the year
How to identify Putkanda
Identify Putkanda by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a herb habit.
- Check the distinctive field mark: Two-toothed bract tip (bidentata).
- Confirm leaf shape: Simple oval/lance-shaped.
- Confirm flower arrangement: Spike (stalkless flowers along a stem).
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: Throughout the year.
- In India, compare location records such as Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam and nearby regions.
- Confirm it sits within the Amaranthaceae family pattern, then compare close relatives before deciding it is Putkanda.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Achyranthes bidentata
- Genus
- Achyranthes
- Family
- Amaranthaceae
- Habit
- Herb
- Distribution
- India, Indo-Malaysia, East-Asia, Australia
- Found in India
- Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Karnataka, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan
- Flowering & fruiting
- Throughout the year
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Leaf shape
- Simple oval/lance-shapedrecorded
Typical of the family
Characters marked “recorded” are for Putkanda itself; the rest are typical of the Amaranthaceae family.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower arrangement
- Spike (stalkless flowers along a stem)recorded
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Actinomorphic (radially symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Spike
- Fruit
- Achene
Characters marked “recorded” are for Putkanda itself; the rest are typical of the Amaranthaceae family — flowering plants only.
Local Names
- Hindi
- Putkanda
- Nepali
- दतिवन् datiwan, रातो अपमार्ग ratoapamarga
- Tamil
- நாயுருவி nayuruvi
- Kannada
- kaadu uttharaani
- Malayalam
- പെരുംകടലാടി perumkadalaadi, പെരുംകടലാടി
- Marathi
- आघाडा AghaDa
About Putkanda
Ox Knee (Achyranthes bidentata) belongs to the Amaranthaceae family, where it grows as a herb. In India it has been recorded in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and 10 other states. It flowers and fruits through much of the year.
Amaranthaceae
Amaranth family
Putkanda belongs to the Amaranthaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Amaranthaceae familySnap it. Know it.
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Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
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