A novel actinomycete, designated strain VN05A0561(T), was isolated from plant litter collected at Ba Be National Park, Vietnam. The substrate mycelia and spore chains fragmented in a manner similar to nocardioform actinomycetes; the spores had smooth surfaces and were rod-shaped. Strain VN05A0561(T) had the following chemotaxonomic characteristics: meso-diaminopimelic acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan, arabinose and galactose as characteristic sugars, MK-8(H₄) as the major isoprenoid quinone, phosphatidylcholine as the diagnostic phospholipid and iso-C₁₆:₀ as the major cellular fatty acid. Strain VN05A0561(T) shared low levels of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (< 97 %) with the type strains of recognized species of the genus Pseudonocardia and could be differentiated from its closest phylogenetic relatives based on phenotypic characteristics. These results suggested that strain VN05A0561(T) represents a novel species of the genus Pseudonocardia, for which the name Pseudonocardia babensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is VN05A0561(T) (=VTCC-A-1757(T)=NBRC 105793(T)).