A novel bacterial strain, designated ZL(T), isolated from a warm spring in Jhonglun, Taiwan, was characterized by using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. The novel strain had chemotaxonomic and morphological properties consistent with its classification in the genus Paenibacillus. Cells were Gram-variable, aerobic, sporulating, motile rods. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis demonstrated that this novel isolate was unique, showing 94.3 % sequence similarity to Paenibacillus assamensis GPTSA 11(T) and lower levels to Paenibacillus timonensis 2301032(T) (94.0 %), Paenibacillus macerans ATCC 8244(T) (93.3 %), Paenibacillus barengoltzii SAFN-016(T) (93.3 %) and Paenibacillus sanguinis 2301083(T) (93.2 %). The novel isolate could be distinguished from the type strains of all of these species based on a range of phenotypic data. The major cellular phospholipids were phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and one unknown phosphoglycolipid. The predominant isoprenologue was an unsaturated menaquinone with seven isoprene units (MK-7). The major fatty acids of strain ZL(T) were C(16 : 0) (33.5 %), anteiso-C(15 : 0) (32.5 %) and iso-C(16 : 0) (9.3 %). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 49.2 mol%. It is evident from the genotypic and phenotypic data that strain ZL(T) should be classified as representing a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus fonticola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ZL(T) (=BCRC 17579(T)=LMG 23577(T)).