Strain AC1100 is well-known for its ability to degrade a variety of recalcitrant xenobiotics, including 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid. We performed a polyphasic-taxonomic study to determine its taxonomic position. The G+C content of strain AC1100 was 62.6 mol%. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, strain AC1100 belonged to the beta-Proteobacteria and was most closely related to Burkbolderia fungorum (98.3% similarity). DNA-DNA hybridisations, comparison of protein profiles, cellular fatty acid analysis and biochemical tests allowed genotypic and phenotypic differentiation of strain AC1100 from other Burkbolderia species. Our data show that strain AC1100 represents a novel species for which the name Burkbolderia phenoliruptrix sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is AC1100(T) (= LX4G 22037(T) = CCUG 48558(T)).