A Gram-stain-positive, spore-forming, aerobic and filamentous thermoactinomycete, designated GD02(T), was isolated from soil in south China. The isolate could grow in the presence of 0-3.0 % NaCl (w/v), at temperatures of 30-60 °C and at pH 5.5-9.5, forming ivory-coloured colonies. When the 16S rRNA gene sequence of the isolate was compared with those of other bacteria, the highest similarity was observed with Kroppenstedtia eburnea DSM 45196(T) (96.1 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 56.3 mol%, the cell-wall peptidoglycan contained ll-diaminopimelic acid, the main polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylmethylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol, and the major menaquinone was MK-7. The major cellular fatty acids (>5 %) were iso-C15 : 0, iso-C16 : 0, iso-C17 : 0 and anteiso-C15 : 0. On the basis of its phenotypic and phylogenetic properties, chemotaxonomic analysis and the results of physiological and biochemical tests, strain GD02(T) ( = CGMCC 1.12404(T) = KCTC 29149(T)) was designated the type strain of a novel species of the genus Kroppenstedtia, for which the name Kroppenstedtia guangzhouensis sp. nov. is proposed.