It favours damp shaded areas in the understory of woodlands, but also shady places on hedge-banks, and rocks, and screes.

The semi-evergreen leaves have an upright habit and reach a maximum length of 150 cm (59 in), with a single crown on each rootstock.

[3] The Finnish name kivikkoalvejuuri refers to the anti-cestoda (tapeworm) medical use it has had (see Culture section), as alve is an old word for cestoda.

The following have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:[5] D. filix-mas is culturally named the title plant of Nurmijärvi, the municipality in Uusimaa, Finland.

The pharmaceutical factory founded by the pharmacist Albin Koponen made Diphyllobothrium latum and cestoda medicines called Filisin and Filicon, the raw material of which was the rhizome of D. filix-mas.