A novel aerobic bacterium, designated strain RR11(T), was isolated from peat soil and was characterized by using a polyphasic taxonomic approach and identified in order to determine its taxonomic position. Strain RR11(T) is a Gram-negative, non-sporulating, motile, short-rod-shaped bacterium. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis identified this strain as a member of the genus Burkholderia of the class Betaproteobacteria. The highest degrees of gene sequence similarity were found with Burkholderia tropica Ppe8(T) (98.0 %), B. bannensis E25(T) (97.3 %), B. ferrariae FeGI01(T) (97.1 %), B. unamae MTI-641(T) (97.1 %) and B. heleia SA41(T) (97.1 %). Strain RR11(T) had the following chemotaxonomic characteristics: the major ubiquinone was Q-8, the DNA G+C content was 60.8 mol%, the major fatty acids were C16 : 0, C19 : 0 cyclo ω8c and C17 : 0 cyclo and the polar lipid profile contained phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and an unknown aminophospholipid. Based on its morphological, physiological and chemotaxonomic characteristics, together with 16S rRNA gene sequence comparison results, strain RR11(T) represents a novel species, for which the name Burkholderia eburnea sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is strain RR11(T) ( = KEMC 7302-065(T) = JCM 18070(T)).