A Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped, motile bacterium designated as SYP-B691T was isolated from rhizospheric soil of Panax notoginseng. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that SYP-B691T clearly represented a member of the genus Bacillus and showed 16S rRNA gene similarity lower than 97.0 % with the type strains of species of the genus Bacillus, which indicates that it should be considered as a candidate novel species within this genus. The optimum growth of the strain was found to occur at 37 °C and pH 7.0-9.0. The genomic DNA G+C content was determined to be 45.2 mol%. It contained meso-2,6-diaminopimelic acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan. The polar lipids consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and an unknown phospholipid. MK-7 was the only menaquinone identified. The major cellular fatty acids of SYP-B691T were identified as iso-C15 : 0 and anteiso-C15 : 0. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic characteristics, SYP-B691T merits recognition as a representative of a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus notoginsengisoli sp. nov. is proposed, with SYP-B691T(=DSM 29196T=JCM 30743T) as the type strain.