Hoya ovalifolia was formally described by the British botanist Robert Wight (1796–1872). He collaborated with George Arnott Walker Arnott (1799–1868) on this description. They published their findings in 1834 in their significant work, "Contributions to the Botany of India.
In its natural environment, it predominantly grows as an epiphyte (climbing on trees) or sometimes a lithophyte (growing on rocks). It thrives within wet tropical and subtropical biomes, in humid, warm lowland forests where it receives good air circulation and dappled light under the forest canopy.