A Gram-negative, pink-coloured, rod-shaped, motile bacterium, designated YIM 93097T, was isolated from the desert soil collected from Xinjiang province of China. Strain YIM 93097T was found to grow at 20–45 °C (optimum 28–37 °C), pH 5.0–7.0 (optimum pH 7.0) and 0–8 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum 1 %, w/v). Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity studies, it belongs to the genus Skermanella. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity was identified to be 98.7 % to Skermanella xinjiangensis CCTCC AB 207153T while the DNA–DNA hybridization value was found to be only 48.1 %. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was determined to be Q-10. The major fatty acids were identified to be C16:0, C18:1 ω7c and summed feature 4 (consisting of C17:1 anteiso B/iso I). The major polar lipids were identified as phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, two unidentified phospholipids and one unidentified aminolipid. The DNA G+C content was found to be 67.2 mol %. The analysis of the genotypic and phenotypic data indicated that strain YIM 93097T belongs to a novel species of the genus Skermanella, for which the name Skermanella rubra sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM 93097T (=DSM 21389T=CCTCC AB 2015161T).