A white-colored bacterial strain designated J20-6(T) was isolated from peat soil collected in Russia. Based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities, the strain J20-6(T) belonged to the genus Paenibacillus, and the closest relatives were Paenibacillus frigoriresistens YIM 016(T) (98.2 %), Paenibacillus alginolyticus DSM 5050T(T) (97.9 %), Paenibacillus chondroitinus DSM 5051(T) (97.4 %), Paenibacillus pocheonensis Gsoil 1138(T) (96.9 %), and Paenibacillus pectinilyticus RCB-08(T) (96.6 %). Cells are gram-positive, motile, facultative aerobic, endospore forming, and rod shaped. The cell wall contains MK-7 as the predominant menaquinone and meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. The major fatty acid is anteiso-C-15:0, and the major polar lipids are diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidyl-ethanolamine. The DNA G+C content of the strain J20-6(T) was 49.9 mol %. The phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, and phylogenetic data clearly suggest that the strain J20-6(T) belongs to the novel member of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus alba sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is J20-6(T) (=KEMC 7302-005(T) = JCM 18165(T)).