A Gram-staining-negative, catalase- and oxidase-positive, strictly aerobic, rod-shaped bacterial strain isolated from fresh water in Trabzon, Turkey and designated MK3(T) was characterized by phenotypic and molecular methods in order to determine its phylogenetic position. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, strain MK3(T) was shown to belong to the genus Flavobacterium, being most closely related to Flavobacterium ceti CECT 7184(T) (93.6%). Sequence similarity with other species of the genus Flavobacterium with validly published names was less than 91.6%. Phenotypic and chemotaxonomic data supported the affiliation of strain MK3(T) to the genus Flavobacterium. The only menaquinone was MK-6; the major fatty acids were iso-C15:0 (45.2%), summed feature 9 (C16:0 10-methyl and/or iso-C17:1ω9c; 20.4%) and summed feature 3 (C16:1ω7c and/or C16:1ω6c; 13.3%) and the major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified aminophospholipid and two unidentified phospholipids. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 38.6 mol%. The results of physiological and biochemical tests allowed strain MK3(T) to be distinguished phenotypically from Flavobacterium ceti CECT 7184(T). Strain MK3(T), therefore, represents a novel species of the genus Flavobacterium, for which the name Flavobacterium anatoliense sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is MK3(T) (=LMG 26441(T)=NCCB 100384(T)). An emended description of Flavobacterium ceti is also proposed.