Viola pendulipes (Violaceae), a new myrmecochous species from the Baiwan Nature Reserve of Guangdong Province in China, is described and illustrated. Morphologically the new species is most similar to V. nanlingensis, but it is easily distinguished by having truncate or cuneate leaf base (vs. cordate leaf base), robust rhizome with short internodes (vs. slender rhizome with long internodes), curved and drooping peduncles in fruit (vs. erect peduncles in fruit), and oblong anterior petals (vs. spatulate to rhombic anterior petals). Our phylogenetic analysis, based on ITS sequences, confirms that the new species belongs to V. subsect. Diffusae, and is most closely related to V. yunnanensis.

The dataset collected by field surveys & Sanger sequencing, adjusted manually, and will be released in Genbank.