Northern maidenhair fern grows in cool, moist, humus-rich woods across eastern North America, often on northern slopes and rocky seeps, and has a separate population in eastern Asia. It reproduces by wind-dispersed spores and is ranked secure by NatureServe. In Quebec it is native.
Carl Linnaeus described the species in 1753 in Species Plantarum. The genus name Adiantum refers to the dry look of the fronds when wet, and the common name comes from the slender, shining black stalks. The dark stems have been used in basketry, and the Greenbelt Indigenous Botanical Survey records that Katie Dybeau of Kahnawà:ke told F. W. Waugh about medicinal uses of the roots of several ferns including maidenhair.