A novel actinomycete strain, YN-5-1T, isolated from the rhizosphere soil of a medicinal plant, Aconitum napellus, was characterized by a polyphasic approach to determine its taxonomic position. The strain showed highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of 97.3, 97.2 and 97.1 % to Nonomuraea turkmeniaca DSM 43926T, Nonomuraea ferruginea DSM 43553T and Nonomuraea candida DSM 45086T, respectively. A wide range of genotypic and phenotypic characteristics, as well as levels of DNA-DNA relatedness between strain YN-5-1T and N. turkmeniaca DSM 43926T (57.46 %), N. ferruginea DSM 43553T (53.50 %) and N. candida DSM 45086T (48.80 %), distinguished the novel isolate from its closest phylogenetic neighbours. The morphological characteristics of strain YN-5-1T were typical of the genus Nonomuraea. Chemotaxonomic characteristics, such as diagnostic diamino acid of the peptidoglycan, whole-cell sugars, phospholipid type, major menaquinone and major fatty acids, further supported the assignment of strain YN-5-1T to the genus Nonomuraea. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 72.1 mol%. Based on the above data, strain YN-5-1T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Nonomuraea, for which the name Nonomuraea flavida sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YN-5-1T (= CCTCC AB 2012909T = KCTC 29143T).