The fronds of tree ferns are usually very large and multiple-pinnate. Their trunk is actually a vertical and modified rhizome, and woody tissue is absent. To add strength, there are deposits of lignin in the cell walls and the lower part of the stem is reinforced with thick, interlocking mats of tiny roots. If the crown of Dicksonia antarctica (the most common species in gardens) is damaged, it will inevitably die because that is where all the new growth occurs. But other clump-forming tree fern species, such as D. squarrosa and D. youngiae, can regenerate from basal offsets or from "pups" emerging along the surviving trunk length. Tree ferns often fall over in the wild, yet manage to re-root from this new prostrate position and begin new vertical growth.

Tree-ferns have been cultivated for their beauty alone; a few, however, were of some economic application, chiefly as sources of starch. These include the Sphaeropteris excelsa of Norfolk Island that was threatened with extinction for the sake of its sago-like pith, which was eaten by pigs. It is now widely cultivated as an ornamental tree, although there is only one small wild population on Norfolk Island. Sphaeropteris medullaris (mamaku, black tree fern) also furnished a kind of sago to people living in New Zealand, Queensland and the Pacific islands. A Javanese species of Dicksonia (D. chrysotricha) furnishes silky hairs, which were once imported as a styptic, and the long silky or wooly hairs, abundant on the stem and frond-leaves in the various species of Cibotium have not only been put to a similar use, but in the Hawaiian Islands furnished wool for stuffing mattresses and cushions, which was formerly an article of export.

It is not certain the exact number of species of tree ferns there are, but it may be close to 600–700 species. Many species have become extinct in the last century as forest habitats have come under pressure from human intervention.
• Lophosoria (tropical America, 1 species)
• Metaxya (tropical America, 1 species)
• Sphaeropteris (tropical America, India, Southeast Asia to New Zealand, the Marquesas, and Pitcairn Island, about 120 species)
• Alsophila (pantropic area, about 230 species)
• Nephelea (tropical America, about 30 species)
• Trichipteris (tropical America, about 90 species)
• Cyathea (tropical America, Australasia, about 110 species)
• Cnemidaria (tropical America, about 40 species)
• Dicksonia (tropics and southern subtropics in Island Southeast Asia, Australasia, America, Hawaii, St. Helena, about 25 species)
• Cystodium (Island Southeast Asia, 1 species)
• Thyrsopteris (Juan Fernández Islands, 1 species)
• Culcita (tropical America, Macaronesia, Iberian Peninsula, 2 species)
• Cibotium (Southeast Asia, Hawaii, Central America, about 12 species)