A Gram-stain-positive bacterium, designated strain ASL46T, was isolated from litter layer of a pine forest located in Anmyondo, Korea. Strain ASL46T was found to be an aerobic, motile, endospore-forming rod which can grow at 20–45 °C (optimum, 37 °C), at pH 6.0–11.0 (optimum, pH 7.0) and at salinities of 0–2% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 1% NaCl). Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain ASL46T belongs to the genus Paenibacillus, showing highest sequence similarity to P. yonginensis DCY84T (98.3%), P. physcomitrella XBT (97.4%) and P. faecis CIP 101062T (96.6%). The average nucleotide identity (ANI) and DNA–DNA relatedness between the strain ASL46T and P. physcomitrella XBT and P. yonginensis DCY84T yielded ANI values of 84.6 and 84.5% and DNA–DNA relatedness of 11.7 ± 0.7 and 10.9 ± 0.2%, respectively. The DNA G+C content of the genomic DNA of strain ASL46T was 52.1 mol%. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was identified as menaquinone-7 and the major cellular fatty acids were determined to be anteiso-C15:0, C16:0 and iso-C16:0. The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, five unidentified aminophospholipids, an unidentified phospholipid and an unidentified glycolipid. The whole-cell sugar was found to be ribose and cell wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid. On the basis of phylogenetic analyses, and phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, strain ASL46T represents a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus pinistramenti sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ASL46T (= KACC 18701T = NBRC 111876T).