Gram stain negative, motile rods. Strains grow on yeast peptone dextrose adenine medium, producing colonies that are 2 mm wide after 48 h at 28 °C. Growth occurs at 39 °C. Catabolizes (−)-d-arabinose, (+)melibiose, (+)raffinose, mannitol and myo-inositol, but not 5-keto-d-gluconate or β-gentiobiose. Casein is not hydrolysed. C16 : 1 ω7c/C16 : 1 ω6c, C16 : 0 and C18 : 1 ω7c are the predominant fatty acids, with significant amounts of C12 : 0, C14 : 0, C13 : 0 3-OH/iso-C15 : 1 H and C14 : 0 3-OH/iso-C16 : 1 I. Pectinolytic and can rapidly degrade potato tissue.

The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the sequences of the intergenic spacer region (IGS) and housekeeping genes of the species of the genus Dickeya used for the multilocus sequence analysis are: KT992693–KT992696 (recA), KT992697–KT992700 (fusA), KT992701–KT992704 (gapA), KT992705–KT992708 (purA), KT992709–KT992712 (rplB), KT992713–KT992716 (dnaX), KT992717–KT992720 (IGS). The accession numbers for the 16S rRNA gene sequences of Dickeya fangzhongdai JS5T, LN1 and QZH3 are KT992690, KT992691 and KT992692, respectively.

The pathogen was isolated from branches of Pyrus pyrifolia cv. ‘Cuiguan’ with symptoms of bleeding canker. The type strain, JS5T (=CGMCC1.15464T=DSM 101947T) was isolated from a pear tree (Pyrus pyrifolia) grown in China in 2009. The DNA G+C content of the type strain is 56.76 mol%. Two additional strains of the species are LN1 and QZH3.