[3] It is found mostly in Africa, Europe, and Eurasia, but is also native to a few locales in Mexico and the United States.

[3][4] This spleenwort has thick, triangular leaf blades up to 10 centimeters long which are divided into several subdivided segments.

It is borne on a reddish green petiole and the rachis is shiny and slightly hairy.

The undersides of each leaf segment have one or more sori[4] arranged in chains.

[5] Linnaeus was the first to describe black spleenwort with the binomial Asplenium adiantum-nigrum in his Species Plantarum of 1753.