[2] It is native to much of the Northern Hemisphere from Eurasia to Alaska to Greenland and south into mountainous central North America.

It has stiff, glossy green, erect fronds and grows in moist, shady, rocky mountain habitats.

[5] Holly fern is an arctic-alpine species with a circumpolar boreal and montane distribution in the Northern Hemisphere.

It grows best in calcareous soil in cool, damp locations at the base of cliffs, on rock ledges and crevices, and among boulders and in deep cavities in limestone pavements.

In the British Isles it occurs in Scotland and the western fringes of England, Wales and Ireland, and at scattered locations elsewhere.