Because of the sweet-tasting root, the spotted fern is also called angel sweet. It is a wintergreen fern plant. Fern plants do not reproduce with seeds, but with spores, accordingly they do not have flowers. Fern plants were already found in huge forests about 300 million years ago. Today these tree ferns still exist in the tropics, otherwise ferns are leaf plants. The spores are located on the underside of the leaves.
The dried rhizome, Polypodii rhizoma, is used phytotherapeutically.