A Gram-stain-positive bacterial strain, 11097T, was isolated from traditional pickle in Heilongjiang Province, China. The bacterium was characterized using a polyphasic approach, including 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, phenylalanyl-tRNA synthase (pheS) gene sequence analysis, RNA polymerase α subunit (rpoA) gene sequence analysis, fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) analysis, determination of DNA G+C content, DNA–DNA hybridization and an analysis of phenotypic features. Strain 11097T was phylogenetically related to Enterococcus devriesei , E. pseudoavium , E. viikkiensis , E. avium , E. malodoratus , E. gilvus and E. raffinosus . Strain 11097T had 99.1–99.9 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities, 78.2–83.2 % pheS gene sequence similarities and 93.8–96.6 % rpoA gene sequence similarities with type strains of phylogenetically related species. Based upon polyphasic characterization data obtained in the present study, a novel species of the genus Enterococcus , Enterococcus xiangfangensis sp. nov., is proposed with the type strain 11097T ( = LMG 27495T = NCIMB 14834T).