A Gram-staining-negative, facultatively aerobic, white-colony-forming bacterium, designated strain SE-S21T, was isolated from forest soil of Jeju Island in Korea. Cells were motile rods with a single polar flagellum, showing catalase- and oxidase-positive reactions. Growth was observed at 10-40 °C (optimum, 30 °C), pH 4.0-10.0 (optimum, pH 7.0-7.5) and with 0-4.0 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0-2 %). Only ubiquinone-8 was detected as the isoprenoid quinone, and C16 : 0, C17 : 0 cyclo, C19 : 1ω8c cyclo and summed feature 2 (comprising C12 : 0 aldehyde and/or unknown) were found to be the major fatty acids. Phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, an unknown aminophospholipid, an unknown aminolipid and an unknown lipid were detected as the major polar lipids. Putrescine and 2-hydroxyputrescine were the predominant polyamines. The DNA G+C content was 61.0 mol%. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA and DNA gyrase B gene sequences revealed that strain SE-S21T formed a phyletic lineage within the genus Pandoraea. Strain SE-S21T was most closely related to Pandoraea faecigallinarum KOxT and Pandoraea pnomenusa CCUG 38742T with 98.8 % and 98.7 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities, respectively. However, the DNA-DNA relatedness values between strain SE-S21T and the type strains of P. faecigallinarum and P. pnomenusa were 26.6±5.7 % and 20.5±3.7 %, respectively. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and molecular features, strain SE-S21T clearly represents a novel species of the genus Pandoraea, for which the name Pandoraea terrae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SE-S21T (=KACC 18127T=JCM 30137T). An emended description of the genus Pandoraea is also proposed.