A Gram-stain-positive, aerobic, non-motile, non-endospore-forming and rod-shaped actinobacterium, designated strain CMS6Z-2T, was isolated from a surface-sterilized branch of Kandelia candel collected from the Maowei Sea, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, PR China. Strain CMS6Z-2T grew at 10–37 °C (optimum, 37 °C), pH 6.0–9.0 (optimum, pH 7.0–8.0) and in the presence of 0–10.0 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0–1.0 %). Strain CMS6Z-2T possessed meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diamino acid of the peptidoglycan and MK-8 (H4) as the predominant menaquinone. The major fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, C16 : 0 and C18 : 1
ω9c. The polar lipids comprised diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol and two unknown phospholipids. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 74.1 mol%. Comparative analysis of 16S rRNA genes showed that strain CMS6Z-2T should be assigned to the genus
Phycicoccus
and its closest relative was
Phycicoccus endophyticus
IP6SC6T with 98.3 % similarity. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequence and phylogenomic analysis based on core proteomes alignment revealed that strain CMS6Z-2T belonged to the genus
Phycicoccus
and formed a robust cluster with
Phycicoccus endophyticus
IP6SC6T within the genus
Phycicoccus
. The average nucleotide identity value and estimated digital DNA–DNA hybridization value between strain CMS6Z-2T and the type strain of
Phycicoccus endophyticus
were 81.5 and 23.9 %, respectively. On the basis of phylogenetic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, strain CMS6Z-2T represents a novel species of the genus
Phycicoccus
, for which the name Phycicoccus flavus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CMS6Z-2T (=KCTC 49240T=CGMCC4.7549T).