A novel species of the genus Actinoplanes, strain LDG1-22 T , for which we propose the name Actinoplanes lichenis sp. nov., was isolated from a lichen sample collected from tree bark in Thailand. The taxonomic position of the species has been described based on a polyphasic approach. Strain LDG1-22 T produced irregular sporangia on agar media. It contained mesodiaminopimelic acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan. The major menaquinone was MK-9(H 4 ); the polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylinositol mannosides and phosphatidylglycerol. Whole-cell hydrolysates contained ribose, glucose, mannose and small amounts of arabinose and xylose. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C 15 : 0 (31.2 %) and iso-C 16 : 0 (14.2 %). Mycolic acids were absent. The G+C content was 73.6 %. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis of strain LDG1-22 T showed highest similarity (98.8 %) to Actinoplanes friuliensis DSM 45797 T and it clustered with Actinoplanes nipponensis JCM 3264 T and Actinoplanes missouriensis JCM 3121 T in phylogenetic tree analysis. On the basis of the phenotypic characteristics and DNA-DNA relatedness, strain LDG1-22 T could be distinguished from related species of the genus Actinoplanes and so represents a novel species of this genus. The type strain of Actinoplanes lichenis sp. nov. is LDG1-22 T (5JCM 30485 T 5TISTR 2343 T 5PCU 344 T ).The genus Actinoplanes, which belongs to the family Micromonosporaceae, was first described by Couch (1950). Members of this genus can be differentiated from other related genera in the family Micromonosporaceae by considering phenotypic characteristics, especially the formation of sporangia as well as the presence of motile spores and from chemotaxonomic characteristics, including 16S rRNA gene sequence-based phylogenetic clustering (Vobis et al., 2012). As with most actinomycetes, strains of species of the genus Actinoplanes are widely distributed in soils from various environments around the world (Couch, 1963;Parenti & Coronelli, 1979;Vobis et al., 2012). At the time of writing, the genus Actinoplanes comprises 39 species with validly published names (Parte, 2014). Some antibiotics have been shown to be produced by strains of species of Actinoplanes such as lipiarmycin (anti Gram-positive bacteria activity), teicoplanin (inhibits cell wall synthesis of Gram-positive bacteria) and friulimicin (has peptidoglycan synthesis inhibiting activity) from Actinoplanes deccanensis, Actinoplanes teichomyceticus and Actinoplanes friuliensis, respectively (Aretz et al., 2000;Coronelli et al., 1975;Somma et al., 1984).We have attempted to find a novel source, other than terrestrial soils, for isolating novel actinomycetes. Recent studies have described the isolation of different species of actinomycete from lichen, such as Actinomycetospora iriomotensis (Yamamura et al., 2011a), Actinomycetospora rishiriensis (Yamamura et al., 2011b) and Nocardioides exalbidus (Li et al., 2007). In the course of our investigation into the diversi...