A novel Gram-stain-positive, slightly halophilic, catalase- and oxidase-positive, endospore-forming, motile, aerobic, rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain JSM 081003(T), was isolated from non-saline forest soil in Hunan Province, China. Growth occurred with 0.5-15% (w/v) NaCl (optimum 2-4%) at pH 6.5-10.5 (optimum pH 7.5-8.5) and at 5-40 °C (optimum 30 °C). meso-Diaminopimelic acid was present in the cell-wall peptidoglycan. The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C15:0, anteiso-C15:0 and iso-C14:0. Strain JSM 081003(T) contained MK-7 as the predominant respiratory quinone, and diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol as the major polar lipids. The genomic DNA G + C content of strain JSM 081003(T) was 40.9 mol%. A phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons revealed that strain JSM 081003(T) should be assigned to the genus Bacillus, and was related most closely to the type strains of Bacillus lehensis (sequence similarity 99.6%), Bacillus oshimensis (99.4%) and Bacillus patagoniensis (96.6%); lower than 96.0% sequence similarity was observed with other Bacillus species. The combination of phylogenetic analysis, DNA-DNA relatedness values, phenotypic characteristics and chemotaxonomic data supports the view that strain JSM 081003(T) represents a new species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus hunanensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is JSM 081003(T) (= DSM 23008(T) = KCTC 13711(T)).