National Research Council of Canada (NRCC) strain 14033 is a gram-variable, motile, yellow-pigmented, strictly aerobic, facultatively halophilic coccus. The guanine plus cytosine content of the deoxyribonucleic acid of this strain is 50.4 ± 0.7 mol%. This strain belongs to the genus Planococcus but differs from the neotype strain (CCM 316) of the type species, Planococcus citreus, in cell wall composition and NaCl requirement; unlike strain CCM 316, strain NRCC 14033 possesses meso-diaminopimelic acid in its cell wall peptidoglycan, and it cannot grow on nutrient medium at 30 C without added NaCl. We regard this strain as belonging to a new species, for which we propose the name Planococcus halophilus. Since the original description is based on a single strain, this strain is the type strain by monotypy. It has been deposited in the American Type Culture Collection under the number 27964.