A novel actinomycete, designated strain NEAU-Spg16(T), was isolated from a soil sample from a pine forest in Songpinggou, Maoxian, southwest China. A polyphasic taxonomic study was carried out to establish the status of strain NEAU-Spg16(T). The cell wall peptidoglycan was found to contain LL-diaminopimelic acid and glycine. The major menaquinones were identified as MK-9(H8), MK-9(H4) and MK-9(H6). The phospholipid profile was found to contain diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol and an unidentified phospholipid. The major fatty acids were identified as iso-C(16:0), C(18:0), C(16:0) and iso-C(15:0). 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity studies showed that strain NEAU-Spg16(T) belongs to the genus Streptomyces with the highest sequence similarity to Streptomyces nitrosporeus DSM 40023(T) (98.6%). However, phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that it is most closely related to Streptomyces scopuliridis DSM 41917(T) (98.2% sequence similarity). A combination of DNA-DNA hybridization results and some phenotypic characteristics indicated that strain NEAU-Spg16(T) can be clearly differentiated from S. scopuliridis DSM 41917(T) and S. nitrosporeus DSM 40023(T). Therefore, it is concluded that strain NEAU-Spg16(T) represents a novel species of the genus of Streptomyces, for which the name Streptomyces maoxianensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type stain is NEAU-Spg16(T) (=CGMCC 4.7139(T) = DSM 42137(T)).