A Gram-negative, strictly aerobic, rod-shaped, non-motile, non-spore-forming bacterial strain, designated Gsoil 104T, was isolated from a soil sample from a ginseng field in Pocheon Province (South Korea) and was characterized taxonomically by using a polyphasic approach. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities, strain Gsoil 104T was shown to belong to the family Sphingobacteriaceae, being related to Pedobacter africanus DSM 12126T (97.0%), Pedobacter caeni LMG 22862T (96.9%), Pedobacter cryoconitis DSM 14825T (96.8%) and Pedobacter heparinus DSM 2366T (96.6%). The phylogenetic distance from any other Pedobacter species with a validly published name was greater than 3.4% (i.e.<96.6% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity). DNA-DNA hybridization experiments showed that values for DNA-DNA relatedness between strain Gsoil 104T and its phylogenetically closest neighbours were below 37%. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 43.6 mol%. The predominant respiratory quinone was MK-7. The major fatty acids were C16:1omega7c, iso-C15:0, C16:0, iso-C17:0 3-OH and iso-C15:0 2-OH. These chemotaxonomic data support the affiliation of strain Gsoil 104T to the genus Pedobacter. On the basis of its phenotypic properties and phylogenetic distinctiveness, strain Gsoil 104T represents a novel species in the genus Pedobacter, for which the name Pedobacter ginsengisoli sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Gsoil 104T (=KCTC 12576T=LMG 23399T).