The taxonomic position of a bacterial strain designated T16R-228(T), isolated from a rhizosphere soil sample of a tomato plant collected from a farm in Buyeo, Chungcheongnam-do, Republic of Korea, was determined using a polyphasic approach. On the basis of morphological, genetic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, it was determined to belong to the genus Paenibacillus. It was an aerobic, Gram-stain-positive, non-motile, catalase-negative, oxidase-negative rod with peritrichous flagella. The polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, hydroxylphosphatidylethanolamine and one unidentified polar lipid. Menaquiones were MK-7. Predominant cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C-15 : 0, C-16 : 0 and iso-C-16 : 0. DNA G+C content was 56.8 mol%. The phylogenetic tree constructed based on the 16S rRNA gene sequences showed the strain formed a clade with P. mucilaginosus VKPM B-7519(T), P. edaphicus T7(T), P. ehimensis KCTC 3748(T), P. koreensis YC300(T), P. tianmuensis B27(T) and P. elgii SD17(T), showing the highest sequence similarity with P. mucilaginosus VKPM B-7519(T) (96.5 %). The polyphasic data supported that strain T16R-228(T) was clearly distinguished from its closely related species and represents a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus for which the name Paenibacillus solanacearum is proposed. The type strain is T16R-228(T) (=KACC 18654(T)=NBRC 111896(T)).