During a study on lactic acid bacteria (and their species diversity) in spontaneous heap fermentations of Ghanaian cocoa beans, two strains, designated 215 T and 194B, were isolated. A phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences demonstrated that these strains represented a distinct lineage close to the genus Weissella and showing only 92.1 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with respect to their closest neighbour, Weissella soli LMG 20113 T . Whole-cell protein electrophoresis, fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism fingerprinting of whole genomes and physiological and biochemical tests confirmed the unique taxonomic position of the two novel isolates. On the basis of the results of the morphological and biochemical tests and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strains 215 T and 194B represent the most peripheral lineage of the genus Weissella, for which we propose the name Weissella ghanensis sp. nov. The type strain is 215 T (5LMG 24286 T 5DSM 19935 T ).The genus Weissella was created by Collins et al. (1993), in the course of a phylogenetic analysis of some unknown Leuconostoc-like lactic acid bacteria, to accommodate five heterofermentative Lactobacillus species and a species formerly classified as Leuconostoc paramesenteroides. Novel species of the genus Weissella have mainly been isolated from fermented foods: Weissella hellenica strains were isolated from fermented sausages (Collins et al., 1993), Weissella kimchii (a later heterotypic synonym of Weissella cibaria) (Ennahar & Cai, 2004) and Weissella koreensis strains were isolated from kimchi (Choi et al., 2002;Lee et al., 2002), and Weissella thailandensis strains were isolated from fermented fish (Tanasupawat et al., 2000). The exceptions are Weissella soli strains, which were isolated from soil (Magnusson et al., 2002), and some W. cibaria strains that were detected in both fermented food and clinical samples (Björkroth et al., 2002).The population dynamics of spontaneous heap fermentations of cocoa beans in Ghana during the main cropping season of 2005 (October-December) were studied by Camu et al. (2007). The levels of lactic acid bacteria species diversity of different fermentation heaps and different fermentation times were signalled by the relative intensities of bands obtained using a culture-independent technique, namely 16S rRNA gene sequence-based PCRdenaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. This analysis detected an unidentified bacterium that appeared in five of the seven heap fermentations studied, from the beginning of the fermentation up to 48 h after the start of the fermentation process. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of this bacterium was determined. Only three isolates (215 T , 194B and 225) that had 16S rRNA gene sequences identical to that of the unidentified bacterium were obtained (and subsequently cultivated) from the same fermenting cocoa bean heap in New Tafo, Ghana (Camu et al., 2007). Isolate 225 lost viability during subsequent cultivation. To check clonality using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD; ...