A Gram-negative, pink-coloured, rod-shaped, non-flagellated bacterium, designated CL-GP80(T), was isolated from a hypertrophic pond located within the campus of Seoul National University, Korea. Analysis of its 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that strain CL-GP80(T) belongs to the family Sphingobacteriaceae and is closely related to Pedobacter heparinus ATCC 13125(T) (95.8 % sequence similarity) and to other members of the genus Pedobacter (90.8-95.3 % similarity). Temperature and pH ranges for growth were 5-33 degrees C and pH 6-8, respectively. The DNA G+C content was 41.3 mol%. The major fatty acids were iso-C(15 : 0) (37.0 %), iso-C(15 : 0) 2-OH and/or C(16 : 1)omega7c (24.5 %), and iso-C(17 : 0) 3-OH (11.3 %). Phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analyses indicated that strain CL-GP80(T) could be assigned to the genus Pedobacter, but distinguished from recognized species of the genus. Strain CL-GP80(T) (=KCCM 42272(T)=JCM 13399(T)) is therefore proposed as the type strain of a novel species, for which the name Pedobacter roseus sp. nov. is proposed.