diff --git a/plugins/_collections.js b/plugins/_collections.js
index a703f9347..8850e587d 100644
--- a/plugins/_collections.js
+++ b/plugins/_collections.js
@@ -203,7 +203,9 @@ exports.elems = {
             'style',
             'switch',
             'text',
-            'view'
+            'view',
+            // not spec compliant
+            'tspan',
         ]
     },
     altGlyph: {
diff --git a/test/plugins/removeUnknownsAndDefaults.15.svg b/test/plugins/removeUnknownsAndDefaults.15.svg
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b153ae34e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/plugins/removeUnknownsAndDefaults.15.svg
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+<svg width="480" height="360" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
+  <text x="50" y="50">
+    A <a xlink:href="#"><tspan>link around tspan</tspan></a> for testing
+  </text>
+</svg>
+
+@@@
+
+<svg width="480" height="360" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
+    <text x="50" y="50">
+    A <a xlink:href="#"><tspan>link around tspan</tspan></a> for testing
+  </text>
+</svg>