[4] The tree can also reproduce by means of the "pups", which detach and fall to the ground and can grow into a new plant beneath the parent.

[4][5] This species was first described in 2020 by Martin Wilhelm Callmander, Sven Buerki, Frank Zich, Ashley R. Field and Timothy Gallaher.

Their paper, titled "Pandanus grayorum (Pandanaceae), a new species endemic to north-eastern Queensland (Australia)", was published in June 2021 in the journal Australian Systematic Botany.

[5] The species epithet grayorum was chosen by the authors to honour the Australian botanist Bruce Gray, who spent many years working in North Queensland,[6] on his 80th birthday.

[2][4] Pandanus grayorum has a very limited distribution, occurring in lowland rainforest and mangrove forest margins in close proximity to the Russell, Mulgrave, Johnstone, Alice, and Moresby rivers in the coastal area between Cairns and Silkwood.