diff --git a/syft/pkg/cataloger/java/parse_pom_xml.go b/syft/pkg/cataloger/java/parse_pom_xml.go
index 8df295ea75e0..a641d1229bfa 100644
--- a/syft/pkg/cataloger/java/parse_pom_xml.go
+++ b/syft/pkg/cataloger/java/parse_pom_xml.go
@@ -163,8 +163,7 @@ func collectDependencies(ctx context.Context, r *maven.Resolver, resolved map[ma
 		// we may have a reference to a package pointing to an existing pom on the filesystem, but we don't want to duplicate these entries
 		depPkg := resolved[depID]
 		if depPkg == nil {
-			var err error
-			depPkg, err = newPackageFromDependency(
+			p, err := newPackageFromDependency(
 				ctx,
 				r,
 				pom,
@@ -174,12 +173,30 @@ func collectDependencies(ctx context.Context, r *maven.Resolver, resolved map[ma
 			if err != nil {
 				log.WithFields("error", err, "pomLocation", loc, "mavenID", pomID, "dependencyID", depID).Debugf("error adding dependency")
 			}
+
+			if p == nil {
+				// we don't have a valid package, just continue to the next dependency
+				continue
+			}
+			depPkg = p
+			resolved[depID] = depPkg
+
+			// only resolve transitive dependencies if we're not already looking these up for the specific package
+			if includeTransitiveDependencies && depID.Valid() {
+				depPom, err := r.FindPom(ctx, depID.GroupID, depID.ArtifactID, depID.Version)
+				if err != nil {
+					log.WithFields("mavenID", depID, "error", err).Debug("error finding pom")
+				}
+				if depPom != nil {
+					transitivePkgs, transitiveRelationships, transitiveErrs := collectDependencies(ctx, r, resolved, depPkg, depPom, loc, includeTransitiveDependencies)
+					pkgs = append(pkgs, transitivePkgs...)
+					relationships = append(relationships, transitiveRelationships...)
+					errs = unknown.Join(errs, transitiveErrs)
+				}
+			}
 		}
-		if depPkg == nil {
-			continue
-		}
-		pkgs = append(pkgs, *depPkg)
 
+		pkgs = append(pkgs, *depPkg)
 		if parentPkg != nil {
 			relationships = append(relationships, artifact.Relationship{
 				From: *depPkg,
@@ -187,20 +204,6 @@ func collectDependencies(ctx context.Context, r *maven.Resolver, resolved map[ma
 				Type: artifact.DependencyOfRelationship,
 			})
 		}
-
-		if includeTransitiveDependencies {
-			depPom, err := r.FindPom(ctx, depID.GroupID, depID.ArtifactID, depID.Version)
-			if err != nil {
-				errs = unknown.Join(errs, err)
-			}
-			if depPom == nil {
-				continue
-			}
-			transitivePkgs, transitiveRelationships, transitiveErrs := collectDependencies(ctx, r, resolved, depPkg, depPom, loc, includeTransitiveDependencies)
-			pkgs = append(pkgs, transitivePkgs...)
-			relationships = append(relationships, transitiveRelationships...)
-			errs = unknown.Join(errs, transitiveErrs)
-		}
 	}
 
 	return pkgs, relationships, errs