Bacterial strain HV38(T) was isolated from mangrove soil, which was collected from Thailand. Chemotaxonomic and morphological characteristics were found to be typical of members of the genus Streptomyces. The strain was found to form a distinct phyletic line in the Streptomyces 16S rRNA gene tree and to be closely associated with the type strains of Streptomyces coeruleofuscus CGMCC 4.1667(T) (98.84 % sequence similarity), Streptomyces chromofuscus CGMCC 4.1451(T) (98.63 %) and Streptomyces albidoflavus CGMCC 4.1291(T) (98.56 %). The major menaquinones were identified as MK-9(H8) and MK-9(H10). Its major cellular fatty acids were found to be iso-C14:0, iso-C15:0, anteiso-C15:0, iso-C16:1ω8c, C16:0, anteiso-C16:1ω8c, iso-C16:0 and anteiso-C16:0. The DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain HV38(T) with S. coeruleofuscus CGMCC 4.1667(T), S. chromofuscus CGMCC 4.1451(T) and S. albidoflavus CGMCC 4.1291(T) were 32.7 ± 0.9, 21.8 ± 0.3 and 19.9 ± 0.9 %, respectively, which clearly supported the conclusion that they belong to separate genomic species. Cumulatively, the data indicated that strain HV38(T) represents a novel species of the genus Streptomyces, for which the name Streptomyces ferrugineus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is HV38(T) (=CCTCC AA2014009(T )= DSM 42152(T)).