A novel actinomycete, designated strain NEAU-Spg16T, was isolated from a soil sample from a pine forest in Songpinggou, Maoxian, southwest China. A polyphasic taxonomic study was carried out to establish the status of strain NEAU-Spg16T. The cell wall peptidoglycan was found to contain LL-diaminopimelic acid and glycine. The major menaquinones were identified as MK-9(H8), MK-9(H4) and MK-9(H6). The phospholipid profile was found to contain diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol and an unidentified phospholipid. The major fatty acids were identified as iso-C16:0, C18:0, C16:0 and iso-C15:0. 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity studies showed that strain NEAU-Spg16T belongs to the genus Streptomyces with the highest sequence similarity to Streptomyces nitrosporeus DSM 40023T (98.6 %). However, phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that it is most closely related to Streptomyces scopuliridis DSM 41917T (98.2 % sequence similarity). A combination of DNA–DNA hybridization results and some phenotypic characteristics indicated that strain NEAU-Spg16T can be clearly differentiated from S. scopuliridis DSM 41917T and S. nitrosporeus DSM 40023T. Therefore, it is concluded that strain NEAU-Spg16T represents a novel species of the genus of Streptomyces, for which the name Streptomyces maoxianensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type stain is NEAU-Spg16T (=CGMCC 4.7139T = DSM 42137T).