diff --git a/src/backends/pyplot.jl b/src/backends/pyplot.jl
index fe843c03..cb19ec86 100644
--- a/src/backends/pyplot.jl
+++ b/src/backends/pyplot.jl
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ function getPyPlotFunction(plt::Plot, axis::Symbol, linetype::Symbol)
       :scatter3d  => :scatter,
       :surface    => :plot_surface,
       :wireframe  => :plot_wireframe,
-      :heatmap    => :imshow,
+      :heatmap    => :pcolor,
       # :surface    => pycolors.pymember("LinearSegmentedColormap")[:from_list]
     )
   return ax[get(fmap, linetype, :plot)]
@@ -373,9 +373,6 @@ function _add_series(pkg::PyPlotPackage, plt::Plot; kw...)
 
   elseif lt == :heatmap
     extra_kwargs[:cmap] = getPyPlotColorMap(d[:fillcolor], d[:fillalpha])
-    left, right = extrema(d[:x])
-    bottom, top = extrema(d[:y])
-    extra_kwargs[:extent] = left, right, bottom, top
 
   else
 
@@ -425,7 +422,7 @@ function _add_series(pkg::PyPlotPackage, plt::Plot; kw...)
   # end
 
   # set these for all types
-  if !(lt in (:contour,:surface,:wireframe))
+  if !(lt in (:contour,:surface,:wireframe,:heatmap))
     if !(lt in (:scatter, :scatter3d))
       extra_kwargs[:color] = color
       extra_kwargs[:linewidth] = d[:linewidth]
@@ -474,7 +471,8 @@ function _add_series(pkg::PyPlotPackage, plt::Plot; kw...)
     plotfunc(d[:x], d[:y]; extra_kwargs...)
 
   elseif lt == :heatmap
-    plotfunc(d[:z]; extra_kwargs...)
+    x, y, z = d[:x], d[:y], d[:z].surf'
+    plotfunc(heatmap_edges(x), heatmap_edges(y), z; extra_kwargs...)
 
   else # plot
     plotfunc(d[:x], d[:y]; extra_kwargs...)[1]
@@ -798,7 +796,7 @@ function addPyPlotLegend(plt::Plot, ax)
   leg = plt.plotargs[:legend]
   if leg != :none
     # gotta do this to ensure both axes are included
-    args = filter(x -> !(x[:linetype] in (:hist,:density,:hexbin,:hist2d,:hline,:vline,:contour, :surface, :wireframe, :path3d, :scatter3d)), plt.seriesargs)
+    args = filter(x -> !(x[:linetype] in (:hist,:density,:hexbin,:hist2d,:hline,:vline,:contour,:surface,:wireframe,:heatmap,:path3d,:scatter3d)), plt.seriesargs)
     args = filter(x -> x[:label] != "", args)
     if length(args) > 0
       leg = ax[:legend]([d[:serieshandle] for d in args],
diff --git a/src/colors.jl b/src/colors.jl
index 5073ac07..2028ebfb 100644
--- a/src/colors.jl
+++ b/src/colors.jl
@@ -72,10 +72,10 @@ const _testColors = [colorant"darkblue", colorant"blueviolet",  colorant"darkcya
 
 "Continuous gradient between values.  Wraps a list of bounding colors and the values they represent."
 immutable ColorGradient <: ColorScheme
-  colors::Vector{Colorant}
-  values::Vector{Float64}
+  colors::Vector
+  values::Vector
 
-  function ColorGradient{T<:Colorant,S<:Real}(cs::AVec{T}, vals::AVec{S} = linspace(0, 1, length(cs)); alpha = nothing)
+  function ColorGradient{S<:Real}(cs::AVec, vals::AVec{S} = linspace(0, 1, length(cs)); alpha = nothing)
     if length(cs) == length(vals)
       return new(convertColor(cs,alpha), collect(vals))
     end
@@ -103,13 +103,13 @@ function ColorGradient{T<:Real}(s::Symbol, vals::AVec{T} = 0:0; kw...)
   ColorGradient(cs, vals; kw...)
 end
 
-function ColorGradient{T<:Real}(cs::AVec, vals::AVec{T} = linspace(0, 1, length(cs)); kw...)
-  ColorGradient(map(convertColor, cs), vals; kw...)
-end
+# function ColorGradient{T<:Real}(cs::AVec, vals::AVec{T} = linspace(0, 1, length(cs)); kw...)
+#   ColorGradient(map(convertColor, cs), vals; kw...)
+# end
 
-function ColorGradient(grad::ColorGradient; alpha = nothing)
-  ColorGradient(convertColor(grad.colors, alpha), grad.values)
-end
+# function ColorGradient(grad::ColorGradient; alpha = nothing)
+#   ColorGradient(convertColor(grad.colors, alpha), grad.values)
+# end
 
 getColor(gradient::ColorGradient, idx::Int) = gradient.colors[mod1(idx, length(gradient.colors))]
 
diff --git a/src/utils.jl b/src/utils.jl
index 69d8e115..3bdd2c2f 100644
--- a/src/utils.jl
+++ b/src/utils.jl
@@ -181,6 +181,13 @@ Base.first(x::Symbol) = x
 
 sortedkeys(d::Dict) = sort(collect(keys(d)))
 
+"create an (n+1) list of the outsides of heatmap rectangles"
+function heatmap_edges(v::AVec)
+  vmin, vmax = extrema(v)
+  extra = 0.5 * (vmax-vmin) / (length(v)-1)
+  vcat(vmin-extra, 0.5 * (v[1:end-1] + v[2:end]), vmax+extra)
+end
+
 
 function fakedata(sz...)
   y = zeros(sz...)