A polyphasic approach was used to characterize a novel nitrogen-fixing bacterial strain, designated YC6995T, isolated from the rhizosphere soil of Iris ensata var. spontanea (Makino) Nakai inhabiting a wetland located at an altitude of 960 m on Jiri Mountain, Korea. Strain YC6995T cells were Gram-negative, and rod-shaped, with motility provided by a single polar flagellum. Optimal growth conditions were 30 °C and pH 7.0. The major fatty acids of strain YC6995T were C18:1 ω7c, C18:1 2-OH and C16:0 3-OH. The major respiratory quinone was ubiquinone-10 (Q-10). The polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidyldimethylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol and unidentified glycolipids. The genomic DNA G+C content was 64.1 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed strain YC6995T to form a phyletic lineage with Nitrospirillum amazonense DSM 2787T with a high sequence similarity (97.2 %), but it displayed low sequence similarity with other remotely related genera, including Azospirillum (<93 %), Rhodocista (93.1–93.4 %), and Skermanella (91.2–93.3 %) in the family Alphaproteobacteria. Based on the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, and phylogenetic evidences, strain YC6995T represents a novel species within the genus Nitrospirillum, for which the name Nitrospirillum irinus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YC6995T (= KACC 13777T = DSM 22198T). An emended description of the genus Nitrospirillum is also proposed.