The plant has cylindrical to egg-shaped, often square, warts that lack milky juice, with naked axillae.

It has 1 to 4 central spines that are yellowish-brown to dark brown, measuring 1.2 to 2.5 cm (0.47 to 0.98 in) long, with the longest usually being hooked.

There are also 20 to 35 straight, needle-like marginal spines, white to light brown or reddish, 0.6 to 1.2 cm (0.24 to 0.47 in) long.

[5] Cochemiea grahamii is found in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas in the United States,[4] and in Sonora, Sinaloa, and Chihuahua in Mexico at elevations of 200 to 1800 meters growing in dry habitat of gravel or grassland, desert mountains, sandy or rocky canyons, washes and plains on igneous or limestone substrate.

[6] Originally described as Mammillaria grahamii by George Engelmann in 1856, the specific epithet honors American topographer Colonel James Duncan Graham (1799–1865), who led the scientific corps surveying the US-Mexico border.