[2] Pteris vittata is native and widespread in the paleotropics: found from the east, to the south tropical, and southern Africa (in Angola; Kenya; Lesotho; Malawi; Mozambique; Namibia; Tanzania (including the Zanzibar Archipelago); Cape Province, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, and Transvaal in South Africa; Eswatini; Uganda; Zambia; and Zimbabwe); temperate and tropical Asia (in the provinces of Anhui, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Xizang, and Yunnan in China; the prefectures of Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan; and Thailand); and Australia, in the states of New South Wales,[6] Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia.

It may be seen growing on concrete structures and cracks, in buildings in the central business district and suburbs of Sydney.

[6][7] It is an introduced species in California, Texas, and the Southeastern United States.

[8] A remnant population exists in the Italian peninsula, in Sicily, Calabria and Campania.

[4] It is grown in gardens for its attractive appearance,[4] or used in pollution control schemes:[4] it is known to be a hyperaccumulator plant of arsenic used in phytoremediation.