A Frankia-like strain, Cs146, was isolated from nodules of Coriaria nepalensis in southwest China. The isolate is an actinomycete with vesicles and sporangia borne on the hyphae, and shown to have an ability to nodulate the host plant. No aerial hyphae is formed, but the substrate hyphae are usually orange and produce soluble yellow pigment. Cs146 could grow quite slow at 28-30 degrees C on both liquid and solid media. However, the isolate is greatly different from other frankiae in physiology (intermediate physiologocal group between A and B trains), cell wall composition of characteristical amino acids (meso-DAP plus glycine) and whole cell sugar patterns (xylose plus little amount of galactose and arabinose). Cs146 thus appears to be a member of a distinct Frankia lineage.