A novel yellow bacterial strain, designated UCM-28T, was isolated from forest soil in Gyeonggi-Do, South Korea. The isolated strain was Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-spore-forming, non-motile and rod-shaped, and grew at 10-37 °C, pH 5.5-9 and with 0-1 % NaCl. It could reduce nitrate to nitrite and hydrolyse aesculin. We determined the taxonomic position of strain UCM-28T; based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence, the strain belongs to the genus Novosphingobium. The bacterium showed the highest similarity to Novosphingobiumpiscinae SLH-16T (98.9 %), Novosphingobium rhizosphaerae JM-1T (97.7 %), Novosphingobium taihuense T3-B9T (97.2 %), Novosphingobium subterraneum DSM 12447T (97.1 %), Novosphingobium aromaticivorans DSM 12444T (97.1 %) and Novosphingobium capsulatum GIFU 11526T (96.7 %). Phylogenic trees also confirmed that strain UCM-28T is most closely related to Novosphingobiumpiscinae SLH-16T and others, and is positioned within the genus Novosphingobium. The DNA relatedness of strain UCM-28T with its references was in the range of 20.9-35.2 %. The polar lipid profile revealed diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, sphingoglycolipid, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine, six unidentified polar lipids and two unknown glycolipids. The major quinone was ubiquinone Q-10, and the major polyamine was spermidine. The DNA G+C content was 63.5 mol%. The major fatty acids included (>10 %) summed feature 8 (C18 : 1ω7c and/or C18 : 1ω6c) (46.3 %), summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c) (24.9 %) and C14 : 0 2-OH (11.8 %). Based on the phylogenetic and phenotypic data, strain UCM-28T should be classified within the genus Novosphingobium as a representative of a novel species, named Novosphingobium flavum sp. nov. The type strain is UCM-28T (=KACC 18571T=NBRC 111647T).