<jats:p>A novel psychrotolerant, Gram-negative, shiny white, curved-rod-shaped, facultatively anaerobic bacterium PB1<jats:sup>T</jats:sup> was isolated from a soil sample collected from a glacier forefield of the Larsemann Hills, East Antarctica. Isolate PB1<jats:sup>T</jats:sup> has catalase and low urease activity and hydrolyses gelatin and starch. Strain PB1<jats:sup>T</jats:sup> is able to grow between −5 °C and 30 °C with optimum growth at 14–20 °C. Glycerol, <jats:sc>dl</jats:sc>-arabinose, <jats:sc>d</jats:sc>-xylose, <jats:sc>d</jats:sc>-galactose, <jats:sc>d</jats:sc>-fructose, <jats:sc>d</jats:sc>-lyxose, <jats:sc>d</jats:sc>-fucose and potassium gluconate are used as sole carbon sources. The major quinone is ubiquinone Q-8. The major fatty acids (&gt;10 %) for PB1<jats:sup>T</jats:sup> are C<jats:sub>16 : 0</jats:sub> (19.1 %), C<jats:sub>16 : 1</jats:sub>ω7<jats:italic>cis</jats:italic> (44.6 %) and C<jats:sub>18 : 1</jats:sub>ω7<jats:italic>cis</jats:italic> (16.2 %). The major polyamines are putrescine [54.9 µmol (g dry weight)<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup>] and 2-hydroxy putrescine [18.5 µmol (g dry weight)<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup>]. DNA G+C content is 62.5 mol%. Strain PB1<jats:sup>T</jats:sup> is phylogenetically related to species of the genus <jats:named-content xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" content-type="genus" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1601/nm.1705" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:italic>Herbaspirillum</jats:italic> </jats:ext-link> </jats:named-content>, with highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities to <jats:named-content xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" content-type="species" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1601/nm.23107" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:italic>Herbaspirillum canariense</jats:italic> </jats:ext-link> </jats:named-content> (97.3 %), <jats:named-content xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" content-type="species" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1601/nm.23108" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:italic>Herbaspirillum aurantiacum</jats:italic> </jats:ext-link> </jats:named-content> (97.2 %), <jats:named-content xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" content-type="species" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1601/nm.23109" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:italic>Herbaspirillum soli</jats:italic> </jats:ext-link> </jats:named-content> (97.2 %) and <jats:named-content xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" content-type="species" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1601/nm.1707" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:italic>Herbaspirillum frisingense</jats:italic> </jats:ext-link> </jats:named-content> (97.0 %). The DNA–DNA relatedness values were below 30 % between PB1<jats:sup>T</jats:sup> and the type strains of <jats:named-content xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" content-type="species" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1601/nm.23107" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:italic>Herbaspirillum canariense</jats:italic> </jats:ext-link> </jats:named-content>, <jats:named-content xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" content-type="species" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1601/nm.23108" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:italic>Herbaspirillum aurantiacum</jats:italic> </jats:ext-link> </jats:named-content> and <jats:named-content xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" content-type="species" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1601/nm.23109" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:italic>Herbaspirillum soli</jats:italic> </jats:ext-link> </jats:named-content>. The different geographical origin of strain PB1<jats:sup>T</jats:sup> from its closest phylogenetic relatives resulted in different phenotypic and genotypic specifications, whereby strain PB<jats:sup>T</jats:sup> represents a novel species of the genus <jats:named-content xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" content-type="genus" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1601/nm.1705" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:italic>Herbaspirillum</jats:italic> </jats:ext-link> </jats:named-content>, for which the name <jats:named-content xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" content-type="genus" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1601/nm.1705" xlink:type="simple"> <jats:italic>Herbaspirillum</jats:italic> </jats:ext-link> </jats:named-content> <jats:italic>psychrotolerans</jats:italic> is proposed. The type strain is PB1<jats:sup>T</jats:sup> (DSM 26001<jats:sup>T</jats:sup> = LMG 27282<jats:sup>T</jats:sup>).</jats:p>