diff --git a/src/plugins/git/gitclient.cpp b/src/plugins/git/gitclient.cpp
index ad056aa6cec..4a185c9ebca 100644
--- a/src/plugins/git/gitclient.cpp
+++ b/src/plugins/git/gitclient.cpp
@@ -1103,12 +1103,20 @@ QString GitClient::synchronousBranch(const QString &workingDirectory)
 {
     QByteArray outputTextData;
     QStringList arguments;
-    arguments << QLatin1String("symbolic-ref") << QLatin1String("--short") << QLatin1String("HEAD");
+    arguments << QLatin1String("symbolic-ref") << QLatin1String("HEAD");
     // if HEAD is detached, the command is expected to fail.
     if (!fullySynchronousGit(workingDirectory, arguments, &outputTextData))
         return QString();
     QString branch = commandOutputFromLocal8Bit(outputTextData);
     branch.remove(QLatin1Char('\n'));
+
+    // Must strip the "refs/heads/" prefix manually since the --short switch
+    // of git symbolic-ref only got introduced with git 1.7.10, which is not
+    // available for all popular Linux distributions yet.
+    const QString refsHeadsPrefix = QLatin1String("refs/heads/");
+    if (branch.startsWith(refsHeadsPrefix))
+        branch.remove(0, refsHeadsPrefix.count());
+
     return branch;
 }