Manpages on Ubuntu-Website seem to be outdated. Look here instead: Systemd Manpages from Freedesktop
$ machinectl --version
systemd 219
+PAM +AUDIT +SELINUX +IMA +APPARMOR +SMACK +SYSVINIT +UTMP +LIBCRYPTSETUP +GCRYPT -GNUTLS +ACL +XZ -LZ4 -SECCOMP +BLKID -ELFUTILS +KMOD -IDN
$ sudo btrfs subvolume show /var/lib/machines/
/var/lib/machines
Name: machines
uuid: bc977eb3-db74-8f4b-ba2c-83dcd96589ec
Parent uuid: -
Creation time: 2015-04-24 13:51:50
Object ID: 14097
Generation (Gen): 161415
Gen at creation: 148024
Parent: 257
Top Level: 257
Flags: -
http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.sysutils.systemd.devel/28392
Is this a btrfs-only feature? The only hint for this I found is this part of the machinectl-manual: "places them in read-only subvolumes in /var/lib/machines".
Debian
$ sudo btrfs subvolume create /var/lib/machines/debian-tree
$ sudo debootstrap --arch=amd64 unstable /var/lib/machines/debian-tree/
$ sudo systemd-nspawn -D /var/lib/machines/debian-tree/
Ubuntu
$ sudo btrfs subvolume create trusty-server-cloudimg-amd64-root
$ sudo tar -xf trusty-server-cloudimg-amd64-root.tar.gz --directory /var/lib/machines/trusty-server-cloudimg-amd64-root
$ sudo systemd-nspawn -M trusty-server-cloudimg-amd64-root
Archlinux
$ sudo btrfs subvolume create /var/lib/machines/archlinux-bootstrap-2015.05.01-x86_64
$ curl -SLO http://ftp-stud.hs-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/archlinux/iso/2015.05.01/archlinux-bootstrap-2015.05.01-x86_64.tar.gz
$ sudo tar -xf archlinux-bootstrap-2015.05.01-x86_64.tar.gz --directory /var/lib/machines/archlinux-bootstrap-2015.05.01-x86_64 --strip-components 1
$ sudo systemd-nspawn -M archlinux-bootstrap-2015.05.01-x86_64
http://seanmcgary.com/posts/run-docker-containers-with-systemd-nspawn