A Gram-positive, non-pigmented, rod-shaped, diazotrophic bacterial strain, designated SC-N012(T), was isolated from rhizosphere soil of sugarcane and was subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. The strain exhibited phenotypic properties that included chemotaxonomic characteristics consistent with its classification in the genus Bacillus. Sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA gene of SC-N012(T) revealed the closest match (98.9% pair wise similarity) with Bacillus clausii DSM 8716(T). However, DNA-DNA hybridization experiments indicated low levels of genomic relatedness (32%) with this strain. The major components of the fatty acid profile are iso-C(15:0), anteiso-C(15:0), iso-C(17:0) and anteiso-C(17:0). The diagnostic cell-wall diamino acid was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The G+C content of the genomic DNA is 43.0 mol%. The lipids present in strain SC-N012(T) are diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol and two unknown phospholipids. Their predominant respiratory quinone was MK-7. Studies of DNA-DNA relatedness, morphological, physiological and chemotaxonomic analyses and phylogenetic data based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing allowed strain SC-N012(T) to be described as members of novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus rhizosphaerae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SC-N012(T) (=DSM 21911(T) = NCCB 100267(T)).