Bradyrhizobia are particularly abundant in Australia, where they nodulate native legumes growing in the acidic and seasonally dry soils that predominate in these environments. They are essential to Australian ecosystems by helping legumes to compensate for nutrient deficiencies and the low fertility of Australian soils. During a survey of Australian native rhizobial communities in 1994–1995, several Bradyrhizobium genospecies were identified, among which genospecies B appeared to be present in various edaphic and climatic conditions and associate with a large range of leguminous hosts across the whole continent. We took advantage of the recent sequencing of the genome of strain BDV5040 T , representative of Bradyrhizobium genospecies B, to re-evaluate the taxonomic status of this lineage. We further characterized strain BDV5040 T based on morpho-physiological traits and determined its phylogenetic relationships with the type strains of all currently described Bradyrhizobium species using both small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene and complete genome sequences. The digital DNA–DNA hybridization relatedness with any type strain was less than 35 % and both SSU rRNA gene and genome phylogenies confirmed the initial observation that this strain does not belong to any formerly described species within the genus Bradyrhizobium . All data thus support the description of the novel species Bradyrhizobium commune sp. nov. for which the type strain is BDV5040 T (=CFBP 9110 T =LMG 32898 T ), isolated from a nodule of Bossiaea ensata in Ben Boyd National Park in New South Wales, Australia.