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The genus Osmunda is a group of primarily temperate-zone ferns. One of these, the cinnamon fern , Osmunda cinnamomea, forms huge clonal colonies in swamp areas. These ferns form massive rootstocks with densely-matted, wiry roots. This mass is harvested as Osmunda fiber and is used horticulturally, especially in propagating and growing orchids.

The spore is borne in large, naked sporangia that are borne in dense masses on completely dimorphic frondFrond refers to the leaf structure of ferns. The term is colloquially applied to the leaves of palms, cycads, and other plants with pinnately compound leaves. A significant difference is that, unlike the leaves of the latter, fern fronds bear the reproducs or pinnae. Because of the pure mass of sporangia that uniformly ripen at the same time to a showy golden color, the ferns look somewhat like they are in flower and so this group is called the flowering ferns.