The fronds of Phegopteris connectilis are 15-60 cm long and spread out on elongate rhizomes (therefore not strongly clumped). Blades are up to 25 cm long and most often 2-pinnatifid, except the lowest pair (rarely 2 pair) of pinnae are fully separate from the other pinnae. The lowest pair of pinnae are also often narrowed at the base and they tend to be conspicuously reflexed.

P. connectilis ranges from northernmost Labrador and Quebec to North Carolina, Illinois and Minnesota, then northwest to Alaska and through British Columbia into Montana, Idaho and Washington. It is common over a large portion of Wisconsin, excepting the extreme southern counties and much of the southeast except for near the Lake Michigan shoreline. In moist woods, often on acidic soils.