A novel actinomycete, designated strain NEAU-GH7T, was isolated from a lake sediment and characterized using a polyphasic approach. Strain NEAU-GH7T was Gram-stain positive, aerobic, non-spore-forming and produced spherical sporangia. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain NEAU-GH7T formed a monophyletic clade with the closest relative Streptosporangium longisporum DSM 43180T (99.0 %), an association that was supported by a bootstrap value of 74 % in the neighbour-joining tree and also recovered with the maximum-likelihood algorithm. However, the low level of DNA–DNA relatedness allowed the strain to be differentiated from its closest relative. Moreover, strain NEAU-GH7T could also be differentiated from S. longisporum DSM 43180T and other Streptosporangium species showing high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (>98.0 %) by morphological and physiological characteristics. On the basis of phylogenetic analysis, DNA–DNA hybridization and phenotypic characteristics, strain NEAU-GH7T should be classified as a new species of the genus Streptosporangium, for which the name Streptosporangium shengliensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NEAU-GH7T (=CGMCC 4.7105T=DSM 45881T).