[1] It was first described by the English botanist John Lindley as Angraecum maculatum in 1821 based on a specimen collected from South America.

Lindley later revised his original placement and moved the species to the genus Oeceoclades in 1833.

[2] When Leslie Andrew Garay and Peter Taylor resurrected and revised the genus Oeceoclades in 1976, they recognized O. maculata and two related species, O. mackenii and O. monophylla.

All three were described as being very similar in appearance and according to Garay and Taylor, the species could be distinguished by the proportions of the labellum, allowing for easy identification in preserved specimens or in the field in their opinion.

[3] Later authors did not agree with recognizing these distinctions as sufficient to maintain separate taxa and thus reduced these names to synonyms of O. maculata.