Two strains of a novel yeast species were isolated from different habitats, from soil in an alluvial zone national park in Austria and from a drain in a Turkish soft drinks factory. Analysis of the nucleotide sequences of the D1/D2 region of their large-subunit rDNAs and PCR fingerprints show that the strains are members of the same species, described as Geotrichum vulgare sp. nov. Analysis of nucleotide sequences showed that this species is related to the ascogenous genus Galactomyces. The closest phylogenetic relative is Geotrichum silvicola, a recently described species. The type strain of Geotrichum vulgare is HA1379T (= CBS 10073T = NRRL Y-27915T).