Cleistocactus brookeae grows as a shrub with sparsely branched, upright to columnar shoots up to 50 centimeters long and 3 to 4.5 centimeters in diameter.

The red to orange flowers are up to 5 centimeters long and have a diameter of 8 millimeters.

The flowers are bent upwards in a right-angled S-shape above the pericarpell and flattened laterally.

[2] Cleistocactus brookeae is distributed in the Bolivian departments of Chuquisaca and Santa Cruz at altitudes of 800 to 1300 meters.

The specific epithet brookeae honors the Bolivian plant collector Winifred M. Brooke.