A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, motile, rod-shaped bacterium, designated 7M-Z19T, was isolated from a soil sample collected from a Pinus massoniana forest of Dinghushan Biosphere Reserve, Guangdong Province, PR China. Strain 7M-Z19T grew at pH 4.5-7.5 (optimum pH 6.0-6.5), 10 to 37 °C (optimum 28 °C) and NaCl concentration up to 2.0 % (optimum 0 %, w/v). iso-C17 : 0, C18 : 1ω7c and C19 : 0ω8c cyclo were the major fatty acids (>10 %) while ubiquinone-10 was the only respiratory quinone detected in 7M-Z19T. The polar lipids of the strain consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidyldimethylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, six unidentified aminophospholipids, three unidentified phospholipids, six unidentified lipids and a glycolipid. The DNA G+C content was 65.8 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the isolate formed a distinct lineage with Dongia mobilis and Dongia rigui within the family Rhodospirillaceae, but with a low sequence similarity of 92.7 and 92.0 %, respectively. On the basis of phylogenetic, phenotypic, physiological and chemotaxonomic distinctiveness, strain 7M-Z19T should be placed in the family Rhodospirillaceae as a representative of a novel genus and species, for which the name Aliidongia dinghuensis gen. nov., sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain of the type species is 7M-Z19T (=NBRC 112240T=KCTC 52134T=CGMCC 1.15725T).