It was extensively used as a Christmas decoration by early settlers, leading to the first law protecting a plant species in the United States in 1869.

It requires constant moisture, high light levels, and intensely acid soil to thrive.

[5][4]Some modern systematists have placed it as the sole member of a basally divergent subgenus Palmata,[6] while others have placed it in a clade with Lygodium articulatum.

This divergence is evidenced both by molecular phylogenetics, and by various morphological discrepancies between Lygodium palmatum and the remainder of the genus.

[4] Most notably, their spores are substantially smoother than any other species in the genus, and they possess dichotomously branched pinnae, and high levels of frond dimorphism.