Dryopteris carthusiana is a perennial species of fern native to damp forests throughout the Holarctic Kingdom.

It is known as the narrow buckler-fern in the United Kingdom,[2] and as the spinulose woodfern in North America.

[4] This dark green plant is upright-ish, growing in leaf bunches, with wide leaves.

It can tolerate direct sunlight slightly better than its relatives and can therefore survive even in some logging sites and benefit from them.

It grows often in the following habitats: moist depressions in forests, nemoral forests, coastal scrubs, fresh cliff faces, sides of ditches, coniferous swamps and herb-rich hardwood-spruce swamps (ruohokorpi in Finnish).