diff --git a/scanpy/tools/_dendrogram.py b/scanpy/tools/_dendrogram.py
index ccae494748..6c43757ad5 100644
--- a/scanpy/tools/_dendrogram.py
+++ b/scanpy/tools/_dendrogram.py
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ def dendrogram(
         rep_df.set_index(categorical, inplace=True)
         categories = rep_df.index.categories
     else:
-        gene_names = adata.raw.var_names if use_raw else adata.var_names
+        gene_names = var_names 
         from ..plotting._anndata import _prepare_dataframe
 
         categories, rep_df = _prepare_dataframe(adata, gene_names, groupby, use_raw)