Fronds to 2 m long, divided twice, either sterile or with fertile spike-like tips (hence the common name). Blade broadly ovate in outline.
Can grow in cool areas.
Eurasia, N & S America, Africa.
Osmunda banksiifolium (Presl) Kuhn from Japan is occasionally cultivated; it has fronds divided once and segments that are coarsely toothed.
Source: (1995). Osmundaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 1, Ferns, conifers & their allies. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
Segments crested. Origin unknown.