A Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic, motile, short-rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain THG-SQA8(T), was isolated from rhizosphere soil of rose in PR China. Strain THG-SQA8(T) was closely related to members of the genus Sphingobacterium, showed the highest sequence similarities with Sphingobacterium multivorum KACC 14105(T) (98.0%) and Sphingobacterium ginsenosidimutans KACC 14526(T) (97.4%). DNA-DNA hybridization showed values of 35.2 ± 0.9% and 8.8 ± 0.3% DNA reassociation with S. multivorum KACC 14105(T) and S. ginsenosidimutans KACC 14526(T), respectively. Chemotaxonomic data revealed that strain THG-SQA8(T) possesses menaquinone-7 as the only respiratory quinone, and summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c), iso-C1 : 0 and C16 : 0 as the major fatty acids. The major polar lipid was phosphatidylethanolamine. The DNA G+C content was 40.7 mol%. These data corroborated the affiliation of strain THG-SQA8(T) to the genus Sphingobacterium. Thus, the isolate represents a novel species, for which the name Sphingobacterium mucilaginosum sp. nov. is proposed, with THG-SQA8(T) as the type strain ( = CCTCC AB 2014317(T) = KCTC 42503(T)).