diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r/package.py
index df447eba3e9..3fed62d1fa7 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r/package.py
@@ -63,8 +63,7 @@ class R(Package):
     depends_on('ncurses')
     depends_on('icu4c')
     depends_on('glib')
-    depends_on('zlib')
-    depends_on('zlib@:1.2.8', when='@:3.3.1')
+    depends_on('zlib@:1.2.8')
     depends_on('bzip2')
     depends_on('libtiff')
     depends_on('jpeg')