Strain THG-MD12T, a Gram-reaction-positive, aerobic, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterium was isolated from rhizosphere soil of Ophiopogon japonicus in PR China. THG-MD12T was closely related to members of the genus Pseudoclavibacter and showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities with Pseudoclavibacter helvolus KCTC 19531T (98.8 %) and Pseudoclavibacter chungangensis KCTC 22691T (96.9 %). DNA-DNA hybridization showed 41.9 ± 2.1 % and 12.4 ± 0.9 % DNA reassociation with P. helvolus KCTC 19531T and P. chungangensis KCTC 22691T, respectively. Chemotaxonomic analyses revealed that strain THG-MD12T possesses menaquinone-9 as the predominant respiratory quinone, 2,4-diaminobutyric acid as the diamino acid in the peptidoglycan and anteiso-C15 : 0, iso-C16 : 0, C16 : 0 and anteiso-C17 : 0 as the major fatty acids. The polar lipid profile was found to consist of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, two unknown glycolipids and two unknown lipids. These data corroborated the affiliation of THG-MD12T to the genus Pseudoclavibacter. Thus, the isolate represents a novel species, for which the name Pseudoclavibacter terrae sp. nov. is proposed, with THG-MD12T as the type strain ( = CCTCC AB 2015124T = KCTC 39562T).