[3][4] Rattlesnake fern prefers to grow in rich, moist woods in dense shade and will not tolerate direct sunlight.

The leaf is 3-4 times pinnately compound, brightly green colored, and feels soft to the touch.

The stem is round and bicolor, being pinkish or light tan at the base but greenish nearer the branches or leaves.

[7] It is believed that this transfer may have helped to enable this plant's cosmopolitan global distribution.

research has established that this plant is sister to all other botrychioid plants, including both the genus Botrychium sensu stricto – rattlesnake fern,[9] common grapefern[10] – and the genus Sceptridium, with the exception of a single known species, previously included in Botrypus, which is B. strictus.