A new genus, Ailuroglossum Sutorý (Boraginaceae), endemic to Sichuan and Yunnan provinces of southern China, is described. It includes two species: A. triste (Diels) Sutorý, formerly recognized as Cynoglossum triste Diels, and the newly described A. breviglochidiatum Sutorý. The genus is distinguished from Cynoglossum L. by a combination of characters, including a rhizome rather than a taproot, an almost flat gynobase, narrowly conical style, and discoid stigma, nutlets with perfect separation, without ventral attachment, and hourglass-shaped tricolporate pollen grains. The new species, A. breviglochidiatum, is distinguished by its more slender rhizomes with longer internodes, differently shaped leaves, and smaller nutlets with a denser indument of shorter glochids.