Ceodes brunoniana is a large shrub or tree that can grow up to 6 meters tall. The branchlets are somewhat quadrangular and glabrous or nearly so. The stems show a moderate tendency toward condensation of terminal internodes into aggregate nodes, which are usually not enlarged. The distal internodes on normal twigs are not usually conspicuously shortened back from the aggregate nodes. The leaves are simple and usually opposite, though they can occasionally be ternate or in pseudo-whorls. The leaf blades are broadly elliptic to elliptic–ovate or obovate, reaching up to at least 20 cm long and 10 cm wide, though they are typically smaller in herbarium specimens. The apex is usually obtuse, and the base is abruptly narrowed to slender petioles. The margins are entire to sinuate. Main lateral veins consist of 6–12 pairs and are not conspicuous, while the tertiary and higher-order venation is usually obscure. Petioles are 1–4 cm long, and stipules are absent. The flowers occur in semi-open cymes, which become larger and more open in fruit. They are found in upper axils and terminally, forming broad, rounded, many-flowered panicles. Pedicels are 5–15 mm long at anthesis and elongate in fruit, with tiny ovate bractlets at articulations in bud that are soon caducous. Flowers are usually bisexual (perfect) and moderately fragrant. The perianth is whitish to greenish or bronze-colored, 7–8 mm long, with a 5-ribbed tube that is usually sparsely tomentulose. The perianth is weakly constricted above, with an expanded limb, funnelform to slightly campanulate, and conspicuously plicate below the centers of the lobes. The lobes are shallow and not spreading, rounded, or emarginate. The corolla (petals) is absent. There are 6–12 stamens, usually around 8, with the filaments slightly connate at the base. Stamens are arranged in 2 indistinct series, with the longer series being subequal with the perianth or slightly exserted. The shorter series has anthers barely or clearly visible in the perianth throat. The anthocarps (fruit) are linear-fusiform, measuring 2.5–3(–3.5) cm long. They are usually broadest at the base and taper to the narrowest point below the lobes. The apical portion is mostly fertile, and the fruit is prominently 5-ribbed or 5-keeled. The ribs are sticky and usually glandular papillate, with 1–3 secondary ribs in the furrows. Each main rib terminates in a shoulder-like prominence below a lobe, and the lobes, in maturity, form a subapical, undulate, papillate ring with a short cylindrical protuberance or collar arising to 1–2 mm from within the ring. Each fruit contains one seed closely enclosed by the thin ovary wall. It is found in dry to mesic areas but rarely in wet areas at 425–1,220(–1,525) meters.