This species is characterized by a relatively robust habit, thicker-textured leaves, numerous rather closely set flowers, yellow corollas, slightly larger fruits than average, and habitat in wetter vegetation, generally premontane. Standley (1936) included these plants in a broadly circumscribed Chiococca alba, and was followed in that by subsequent authors. With more specimens now available and new documentation of plants from the type regions, it seems distinct. Chiococca brachiata is similar to Chiococca belizensis, which is here separated as a species found on the western slopes of the northwest Andes and through Central America to Mexico. This separation may be overly arbitrary, or some of the plants west of the Andes may also belong to Chiococca brachiata. If all these plants belong to one species, Chiococca brachiata is the oldest name for it. 

The plants treated as Chiococca brachiata by Mueller (1881) were a varied group, and do not correspond to this name in the taxonomy used here. Mueller used that name mostly for plants here treated as Chiococca densifolia and Chiococca alba. He named 17 varieties of Chiococca brachiata, and synonymized various other names from across South America with it. His varieties were separated by subtle vegetative features, and his separation of them was so complicated that he separated duplicates of various collections into two or three varieties. Mueller's broad circumscription of this species apparently influenced later authors; in particular, Standley treated the South American Chiococca plants in one variable widespread species similar to Mueller's, except he used the name Chiococca alba for this species. 

Mueller's Chiococca brachiata var. grandfolia was based on a set of specimens from Eastern Brazil, Colombia, and the western Amazon basin in Peru. This name has not been typified, but it was heterogeneous biogeographically when described, and it included three species in the taxonomy here. The plants from eastern Brazil appear to be a distinct species endemic to Bahia; his plant from Colombia corresponds here to Chiococca belizensis; and his plants from central Peru do correspond here to Chiococca brachiata. The eastern Brazilian plants Mueller included in var. grandifolia do seem distinct, but this will need further study J.G. Jardim, pers. comm.). This name is here applied to only the Brazilian species. 

Mueller (1881) synonymized Chiococca anguifuga from Minas Gerais with Chiococca brachiata var. brachiata of Peru. This classification apparently was based mainly on leaf size but was not well supported otherwise, and those are separated here with Chiococca anguifuga synonymized with Chiococca alba. The majority of the plants Mueller included in his Chiococca brachiata are here included in Chiococca densifolia.