Xiquexique gounellei grows as a shrub and rarely as a tree, branches out numerously from a trunk and reaches heights of growth of 0.5 to 4 meters.

The spread 10 to 20 radial spines lie on the surface of the shoots and are 6 to 30 millimeters long.

Xiquexique gounellei is widespread in northeastern Brazil in the Caatinga vegetation.

[1] The first description as Pilocereus gounellei was published in 1897 by Frédéric Albert Constantin Weber.

The specific epithet gounellei honors the French entomologist Pierre-Émile Gounelle (1850–1914).