Often seen in rainforest margins or eucalyptus forest in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, it is a terrestrial fern with reddish new growth.

Doodia aspera was one of the many species first described by the botanist Robert Brown in his 1810 work Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen, and it still bears its original name.

The frond segments have dentate (toothed) margins, and measure around 6 cm (2.4 in) long, and in a zig-zag pattern up the stem.

It grows on sandstone and igneous (granite and basalt) substrates, in sand- or gravelly soils[6] It is also found on Norfolk Island.

[6] Readily adaptable to cultivation, Doodia aspera grows in shade or sun with adequate moisture on acidic soils with some organic content.