The male fern is the most wide spread fern in the moderate climate.

It grows on all continents and favours damp shaded areas. It can be found both in Greenland covered with ice, Scandinavia and in Mexico or on the Mediterranean coast. The plant is abundant on almost all the territory of Russia from the Kola Peninsula to the mountain regions of Caucasus, Ural and Siberia. The male fern grows in the understory of woodlands, such as fir trees, cedars and oaks. It forms clumps and replaces all other plants.

In ancient times, Slavic peoples had a belief related to the magic qualities of this plant. A person who wants to become invisible, have a prosperous and happy life is to find a fern ‘fire’ flower at the eve of Kupala Night. Only later people learnt that the plant had no flowers at all.

The male fern as well as other species of ferns uses spori for reproduction. Its rootstocks are crowned with bright green leaves, fern branches, with sori developed in two rows. When the spores ripen in June to September, they are taken away by the wind to a place where a new plant starts to grow.

Nowadays the male fern is a popular plant for landscape design and it is used for decoration of gardens, city parks and recreational areas.

Though the male fern can be found in many territories, recently it has become less abundant and recorded in the Red Lists of Threatened Species of the Murmansk and Tomsk Regions and Buryatia.