A rod-shaped, endospore-forming, Gram-reaction-positive bacterium, designated strain WPCB018(T), was isolated from a fresh water sample collected from Woopo wetland, Korea. The isolate was identified as a member of the genus Paenibacillus on the basis of phenotypic characteristics and phylogenetic inference based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and unknown aminophospholipids. The diamino acid found in the cell-wall peptidoglycan was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The predominant menaquinone was MK-7. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C(15 : 0) (32.2 %), C(16 : 0) (20.1 %) and C(18 : 0) (18.1 %). The DNA G+C content was 56.0 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain WPCB018(T) belongs to a cluster comprising species of the genus Paenibacillus, its closest neighbours being Paenibacillus humicus PC-147(T) (97.5 %) and Paenibcillus pasadenensis SAFN-007(T) (96.2 %). Genomic DNA-DNA hybridizations performed with strain WPCB018(T) and type strains of the species P. humicus, P. pinihumi, P. phyllosphaerae, P. pasadenensis and P. tarimensis showed relatedness values of only 10, 17, 18, 19 and 20 %, respectively. On the basis of phenotypic, molecular and genetic evidence, strain WPCB018(T) represents a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus wooponensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of the novel species is WPCB018(T) (= KCTC 13280(T) = JCM 16350(T)).