[2] The generic name Medusagyne was given to the plant by John Gilbert Baker who thought that the gynoecium of the flower resembles the head of Medusa from Greek mythology.

These features include a large onci that is composed of fibrilla spacer during the early stage of development to represent the atria section of it.

[2] The jellyfish tree presents a conundrum in that the seeds seem unable to germinate in the wild; no young plants have been observed in the natural stands.

[8] Although seedlings have been grown in a number of botanic gardens, many problems remain and a conservation priority must be further researched into the reproductive biology of this intriguing species before any effective Action Plan for its future can be devised.

[8] This article incorporates text from the ARKive fact-file "Jellyfish tree (Medusagyne oppositifolia)" under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License and the GFDL.