A yellow-colored, Gram-negative, strictly aerobic, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterium, designated THG-MM5(T), was isolated from road soil in Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence, strain THG-MM5(T) was moderately related to Sphingomonas sediminicola KACC 15039(T) (96.1%), Sphingomonas ginsengisoli KACC 16858(T) (96.1%) and Sphingomonas jaspsi KACC 13230(T) (96.0%). Chemotaxonomic data revealed that strain THG-MM5(T) possesses ubiquinone-10 as the only respiratory quinone, sym-homospermidine as the major polyamine and summed feature 3 (C16:1 ω7c and/or C16:1 ω6c), C18:1 ω7c and C16:0 as the major fatty acids. The polar lipid profile included sphingoglycolipid. The DNA G + C content was 60.7 mol%. These data, together with phenotypic characterization, corroborated the affiliation of strain THG-MM5(T) to the genus Sphingomonas. Thus, the isolate represents a novel species, for which the name Sphingomonas flavus sp. nov. is proposed, with THG-MM5(T) as the type strain (=KACC 18277(T) = CCTCC AB 2014320(T)).