Review of specimens of Rudgea Salisb. (Rubiaceae, Palicoureeae) has discovered some species new to science and clarified the identity of one previously described taxon. Here we raise R. viburnoides (Cham.) Benth. subsp. megalocarpa Zappi of the western Amazon basin to species status, as R. megalocarpa (Zappi) Bruniera & C. M. Taylor. We also describe 11 new species found variously from lowland to montane elevations in Panama and western South America: R. barbosae C. M. Taylor from scattered locations on sandstone in Colombia; R. campanana C. M. Taylor from central Panama; R. cardenasii C. M. Taylor from the Caribbean area of northwestern Colombia; R. chocoana C. M. Taylor from the Pacific drainage of western Colombia and northwestern Ecuador; R. elegans C. M. Taylor from sandstone formations in the Andes of central Peru; R. homeieri C. M. Taylor from the Andean slopes of central Ecuador; R. inflata C. M. Taylor from the northwestern Amazon basin in Colombia and Brazil; R. retiniphylloides C. M. Taylor from northern to north-central Colombia; R. sanluisensis C. M. Taylor & Cogollo from the lower Río Magdalena valley of northern Colombia; R. suberosa C. M. Taylor & Bruniera from cloud forest and pajonal in the Andes from southern Ecuador through southern Peru; and R. zappiae C. M. Taylor & Bruniera from central western Ecuador.