diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
index 2027d250a8a0..f41c4628c972 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
@@ -4,6 +4,10 @@
 import six
 from six.moves import xrange, zip, zip_longest
 
+try:
+    import collections.abc as collections_abc
+except ImportError:
+    import collections as collections_abc
 import functools
 import itertools
 import logging
@@ -4268,7 +4272,11 @@ def scatter(self, x, y, s=None, c=None, marker=None, cmap=None, norm=None,
         # c is an array for mapping.  The potential ambiguity
         # with a sequence of 3 or 4 numbers is resolved in
         # favor of mapping, not rgb or rgba.
-        if c_none or co is not None:
+        if (c_none or
+                co is not None or
+                isinstance(c, six.string_types) or
+                (isinstance(c, collections_abc.Iterable) and
+                    isinstance(c[0], six.string_types))):
             c_array = None
         else:
             try: