A Gram-stain-positive bacterium, designated as YIM 134068T, was isolated from a lichen. Strain YIM 134068T was non-motile, non-spore forming, coccus shaped, oxidase, and catalase positive. Cells could grow at 10–40 °C (optimum 28 °C) and pH 7.0–8.0 (optimum pH 7.0), and they could proliferate in the salinity range of 0–3.0% (w/v) NaCl. Strain YIM 134068T possessed MK-8 as the major respiratory quinone, and its predominant cellular fatty acids (> 10%) were summed feature 3 (C16:1ω7c and/or C16:1ω6c), C16:0N alcohol, and C16:0. Polar lipids comprised of phosphatidyl ethanolamine, two unidentified phospholipids, and seven unindentified phosphoglycolipids. Phylogenetic analysis using 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain YIM 134068T shared the highest sequence similarities with Deinococcus aetherius ST0316T (93.2%) and Deinococcus aestuarii SYSU M49105T (92.1%). The DNA G + C content of YIM 134068T was 69.1% and the average nucleotide identity and digital DNA–DNA hybridization values between strain YIM 134068T and the reference strains were 82.6–83.0% and 26.3–26.7%, respectively. Based on the phylogenetic and phenotypic analyses, strain YIM 134068T is considered to represent a novel species within the genus Deinococcus, for which the name Deinococcus lichenicola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM 134068T = CGMCC 1.61729T = MCCC 1K08693T = NBRC 117087 T.