Very small, usually solitary Mammillaria (to just over an inch wide) with white, pectinate (comb-like) radial spines. The spines can be spectacular in close-up detail. Stems are globose, then cylindrical with age; some plants offset with age. Flowers are white, yellowish, or pale pink, about an inch in diameter. Red fruit, black seeds. From limestone substrates in the Tehuacán Valley of Oaxaca and Puebla, Mexico. The most endangered Mammillaria.

Two subspecies exist: and Conchilinque (Mammillaria solisioides) (with yellowish flowers; greener looking stems, less covered up by spines; and a greater tendency to offset). This plant, at least the type subspecies, vaguely resembles Mammillaria bertholdii and Pelecyphora aselliformis, which also have pectinate spines.

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