The sterile leaves have flat, wavy-margined leaflets 5 to 8 millimeters wide, while the fertile leaves have much narrower leaflets, each with two thick rows of sori on the underside.

[5] The Latin specific epithet spicant is of uncertain origin, possibly referring to a tufted or spiky habit.

[7] It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

[8] The species was first described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus as Osmunda spicant.

[1] In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I), it is placed in the genus Struthiopteris, in the subfamily Blechnoideae.