Five Gram-type-positive, aerobic, rod-shaped, non-motile strains of Microbacterium (DCY 17(T), Ms1, Ms2, Ms3 and Ms4) were isolated from soil from a ginseng field in Daejeon, South Korea. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, these strains were shown to be related to Microbacterium esteraromaticum DSM 8609(T) (96.1 %), M. xylanilyticum DSM 16914(T) (96.0 %), M. aquimaris JS54-2(T) (95.6 %), M. insulae DS-66(T) (95.5 %), M. ketosireducens IFO 14548(T) (95.5 %) and M. arabinogalactanolyticum DSM 8611(T) (95.4 %). Chemotaxonomic data revealed that the type strain, DCY 17(T), possesses menaquinones MK-12, MK-11 and MK-13 and the predominant fatty acids C(15 : 0) anteiso (32.5 %), C(15 : 0) iso (27.5 %), C(16 : 0 ) iso (17.0 %), C(17 : 0) anteiso (13.2 %), C(17 : 0) iso (6.1 %) and C(14 : 0) iso (2.1 %). The DNA G+C content of strain DCY 17(T) is 70.2 mol% and those of strains Ms1 to Ms4 are in the range 68.9-73.5 mol%. The physiological and biochemical tests suggested that these strains represent a novel species. Based on these data, DCY 17(T) (=KCTC 19237(T) =LMG 24010(T)) is classified as the type strain of a novel Microbacterium species, for which the name Microbacterium soli sp. nov. is proposed.