A novel actinomycete, designated strain KLBMP 1262(T), was isolated from a coastal plant Dendranthema indicum (Linn.) Des Moul collected from the coastal region of Nantong, Jiangsu Province, in east China and was studied in detail for its taxonomic position. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that strain KLBMP 1262(T) is a member of the genus Amycolatopsis. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity indicated that strain KLBMP 1262(T) is most closely related to Amycolatopsis sulphurea DSM 46092(T) (97.96 %), Amycolatopsis ultiminotia RP-AC36(T) (97.50 %) and Amycolatopsis jejuensis N7-3(T) (97.44 %); similarity to other type strains of the genus Amycolatopsis was less than 97.0 %. The organism was determined to have chemical and morphological features consistent with its classification in the genus Amycolatopsis such as meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid in the cell wall peptidoglycan and arabinose and galactose as the diagnostic sugars. The predominant menaquinone was determined to be MK-9 (H(4)). The polar lipids detected were phosphatidylmethylethanolamine, phosphatidylethanolamine, an unknown aminophospholipid, two unknown glycolipids and several unknown lipids. The major fatty acids were found to be C(16:0), iso-C(16:0) and iso-C(15:0). DNA-DNA relatedness data, together with phenotypic differences, clearly distinguished the isolate from its closest relatives. On the basis of these phenotypic and genotypic data, the isolate is considered to represent a novel species, for which the name A. jiangsuensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is KLBMP 1262(T) (=KCTC 19885 (T) = NBRC 108679(T)).