A yellow-pigmented, Gram-stain-negative, short-rod-shaped bacterial strain, MIMD3T, was isolated from biological soil crusts collected in Liangcheng, north-western China. Cell growth could be observed at 10-37 °C (optimum 25 °C), at pH 5-8 (optimum 6.6) and in the presence of 1 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum 0 %). The genomic DNA G+C content was 65.0 mol%. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain MIMD3T shared the highest similarity with Sphingomonas vulcanisoli KCTC 42454T (95.1 %), Sphingomonas oligophenolica JCM 12082T (94.8 %), Sphingomonas mali IFO 15500T (94.5 %), Sphingomonas. leidyi ATCC 15260T (94.4 %) and Sphingomonas formosensis CC-Nfb-2T (94.3 %). The strain had Q-10 as the predominant respiratory quinone, and sym-homospermidine as the major polyamine. The major fatty acids of the strain were summed feature 8 (C18 : 1ω7c and/or C18 : 1ω6c), C19 : 0 cyclo ω8c, C14 : 0 2-OH and C16 : 0. The main polar lipids of strain MIMD3T were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine and sphingoglycolipid. Based on phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic characteristics, it is concluded that strain MIMD3T represents a novel species of the genus Sphingomonas, for which the name Sphingomonas crusticola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is MIMD3T (=KCTC 42801T=MCCC 1K01310T).