The frond is held on a stipe which is 20% of the length of the leaf[5] and brown at the base but becoming green as it approaches the leaflets.

The leaf is overall 8–25 inches (20–64 cm) long, yellow-green, rather soft and thin in texture, and tapers at either end with the lowest 4-10 leaflets being generally smaller than those above.

[4] It is distinctive by its pinnae tapering to the base of the frond, and by its forming extensive clonal colonies on ridgetops and mountain benches.

[5] The only other native species in this area with similarly tapering pinnae is the ostrich fern, which generally grows in riparian habitats and is much taller (up to 1.5 m or 4.9 ft).

New York fern is common in sunny patches caused by canopy gaps in mixed woodlands, near vernal seeps, at the edge of swamps, in wooded ravines, and along streams.