Strain 211020(T) was isolated from rhizosphere soil of Excoecaria agallocha in a mangrove in Hainan, China. The strain produced longitudinal pair spores branching from aerial hyphae. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that the isolate belonged to the genus Microbispora, exhibiting the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (98.75 %) to Microbispora corallina JCM 10267(T) with a low DNA-DNA relatedness value (13 ± 0.6 %). The isolate contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid but madurose was not detected. The predominant menaquinones were MK-9(H(4)), MK-9(H(2)) and MK-9(H(0)), and the major fatty acids were iso-C(16 : 0), iso-C(15 : 0) and C(17 : 0). The phospholipid profile of strain 211020(T) comprised phosphatidylinositol mannoside, phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol and phospholipids of unknown structure containing glucosamine. The DNA G+C content was 70.8 mol%. On the basis of phenotypic and genotypic data, strain 211020(T) can be distinguished as a novel species of the genus Microbispora, for which the name Microbispora hainanensis sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is 211020(T) ( = CGMCC 4.5595(T) = DSM 45428(T)).