Matteuccia are rhizomatous deciduous ferns, sometimes with stolons, forming shuttlecock-like rosettes of erect or spreading, pinnately divided fronds, with smaller, erect, bead-like fertile fronds
M. struthiopteris is a deciduous, stoloniferous fern forming colonies of erect rosettes to 1.5m in height, with lance-shaped, bright green, bipinnatifid sterile fronds surrounding shorter, brownish fertile fronds