The erect and slender shrub or small tree typically grows to a height of 0.4 to 3 metres (1 to 10 ft).

[4] The species was first formally in 1808 as Poiretia elliptica by James Edward Smith in the Transactions of the Linnean Society of London from specimens collected from King George's Sound by Archibald Menzies.

[6][7] It was later transferred to the genus Hovea in 1825 by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in his Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis.

[8] It occurs on sand dunes, slopes ridges and granite outcrops in the South West and Great Southern regions of Western Australia where it grows in clay, loamy, sandy and gravelly lateritic soils[2] often rich in organic matter.

[4] Usually part of the understorey in jarrah, marri and karri forest communities[5] and is often associated with Bossiaea aquifolium subsp.