The taxonomic position of an actinomycete isolated from a hypermagnesian ultramafic soil was examined using a polyphasic approach. The strain, designated SBH(R) OA6(T), was shown to have chemical and morphological properties typical of members of the genus Nocardia. The organism was most closely associated with Nocardia asteroides using 16S rRNA gene sequence data. It showed a distinctive set of phenotypic properties that distinguished it from representatives of all species with validly published names classified in the genus Nocardia. The combined genotypic and phenotypic data show that strain SBH(R) OA6(T) (=DSM 44717(T)=NCIMB 13955(T)) merits description as the type strain of a novel Nocardia species, Nocardia neocaledoniensis sp. nov.