Seven Gram-negative bacterial strains were isolated from oozing bark canker of poplar (Populus × euramericana) trees in Hungary. They showed high (>98.3%) 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Lonsdalea quercina however, they differed from this species in several phenotypic characteristics. Multilocus sequence analysis based on three housekeeping genes (gyrB, atpD and infB) revealed, and DNA-DNA hybridization analysis confirmed, that this group of bacterial strains forms a distinct lineage within the species Lonsdalea quercina. A detailed study of phenotypic and physiological characteristics confirmed the separation of isolates from poplars from other subspecies of L. quercina therefore, a novel subspecies, Lonsdalea quercina subsp. populi, type strain NY060(T) (=DSM 25466(T)=NCAIM B 02483(T)), is proposed.