A novel gliding bacterial strain, GB 56.1 T , was obtained from soil at the Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve, in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand; the strain was characterized using a polyphasic approach. Cells were Gram-stain-negative, yellow, rod shaped and devoid of flagella, but showed gliding motility. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences found that GB 56.1 T was a member of the genus Flavobacterium and that the strain shared the highest sequence similarities with Flavobacterium nitrogenifigens (98.4 %), Flavobacterium anhuiense (98.3 %) and Flavobacterium ginsenosidimutans (97.9 %). The similarities of the sequences of all other species of the genus Flavobacterium were below 97.4 %. The major respiratory quinone of strain GB 56.1 T was MK-6; fatty acids were iso-C 15:0 , C 16:1 !6c/C 16:1 !7c, C 16:0 and C 16:0 3-OH. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylserine, an unidentified amino lipid and four polar lipids. The DNA G+C content of this strain was 34.2 mol%. The DNA-DNA relatedness of GB 56.1 T was highest against F. anhuiense, with a value of 37.6 %. On the basis of morphological, physiological and chemotaxonomic characteristics, DNA-DNA hybridization relatedness and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, we conclude that strain GB 56