One yeast strain characterized by the proliferation of non-ballistosporous stalked conidia, budding cells and ballistoconidia, the presence of xylose in whole-cell hydrolysates, the presence of Q-10 as the major ubiquinone isoprenologue, the inability to ferment sugars and positive diazonium blue B (DBB) and urease reactions was isolated from a plant sample collected in a tropical rain forest in Thailand. The isolate clustered with Kockovaella species in the 18S rDNA-based tree. On the basis of the morphological, biochemical and molecular phylogenetic characteristics, the isolate was assigned to the genus Kockovaella. DNA complementarity experiments showed that the isolate was genetically distinct from known species of the genus Kockovaella. The isolate is described as Kockovaella barringtoniae sp. nov. The type strain is strain TY-278T (= JCM 10998T = TISTR 5770T).