Athyrium distentifolium commonly known as alpine lady-fern is a perennial fern found in widely in the Northern Hemisphere.

The leaf blade is narrowing towards both the base and tip, repeatedly double pinnate.

There it grows best in bare fjeld regions, in the slopes long moistened by the meltwaters from the spots of snow.

[1] It is a common upland variety above 600 metres in the Highlands of Scotland, with more than 10% of the UK population being found in the Cairngorm mountains, especially on scree slopes in Glen Feshie, and on Ben Avon, Ben MacDui and Beinn a' Bhùird.

[2][3][4] The subspecies americanum is found in the mountains of western United States, Alaska, Canada and coastal Greenland,[5] and is sometimes classified as a separate species Athyrium americanum.