[2][3] It grows from a creeping rootstock, sending up individual fronds that more or less clump.

Its native habitat includes moist, undisturbed, hardwood forests.

The specific name hexagonoptera refers to the winging of leaf tissue along the rachis between the basal pinnae.

Genetic analysis has shown the genus Phegopteris to be a sister clade to the rest of the thelypteroid ferns.

This fern makes an excellent garden plant, gradually filling in a bed.