A Gram-negative, catalase-positive, mesophilic, obligately aerobic bacterium designated JRM2-1T was isolated from forest soil of Jirisan Mountain, Republic of Korea, and its taxonomic position was investigated based on a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Cells of strain JRM2-1T grew optimally at pH 5.0-7.0 and at 25 °C. Strain JRM2-1T was susceptible to chloramphenicol, gentamicin, kanamycin, nalidixic acid, rifampicin, streptomycin and tetracycline. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, the closest neighbour of strain JRM2-1T was Burkholderia rhizosphaerae WR43T (98.1 %). On the basis of our phylogenetic analysis, strain JRM2-1T is clearly distinguished from related species of the genus Burkholderia and is clustered with plant-associated members of the genus. The major cellular fatty acids were C16 : 0, C17 : 0 cyclo and C19 : 0 cyclo ω8c. The polar lipid profile of strain JRM2-1T contained diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, several unidentified aminolipids and an unidentified aminophospholipid. The isoprenoid quinone of strain JRM2-1T was Q-8 and the DNA G+C content was 63.7 mol%. On the basis of our polyphasic taxonomic investigation, strain JRM2-1T is considered to represent a novel species in the genus Burkholderia, for which the name Burkholderia jirisanensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is JRM2-1T ( = AIM 0373T = KCTC 42072T = JCM 19985T).