diff --git a/src/cmd/go/internal/modfetch/codehost/git.go b/src/cmd/go/internal/modfetch/codehost/git.go
index 5273e633b5c..55627cb72ac 100644
--- a/src/cmd/go/internal/modfetch/codehost/git.go
+++ b/src/cmd/go/internal/modfetch/codehost/git.go
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ import (
 
 	"cmd/go/internal/lockedfile"
 	"cmd/go/internal/par"
+	"cmd/go/internal/semver"
 )
 
 // GitRepo returns the code repository at the given Git remote reference.
@@ -652,16 +653,40 @@ func (r *gitRepo) RecentTag(rev, prefix string) (tag string, err error) {
 	}
 	rev = info.Name // expand hash prefixes
 
-	// describe sets tag and err using 'git describe' and reports whether the
+	// describe sets tag and err using 'git for-each-ref' and reports whether the
 	// result is definitive.
 	describe := func() (definitive bool) {
 		var out []byte
-		out, err = Run(r.dir, "git", "describe", "--first-parent", "--always", "--abbrev=0", "--match", prefix+"v[0-9]*.[0-9]*.[0-9]*", "--tags", rev)
+		out, err = Run(r.dir, "git", "for-each-ref", "--format", "%(refname)", "refs/tags", "--merged", rev)
 		if err != nil {
-			return true // Because we use "--always", describe should never fail.
+			return true
+		}
+
+		// prefixed tags aren't valid semver tags so compare without prefix, but only tags with correct prefix
+		var highest string
+		for _, line := range strings.Split(string(out), "\n") {
+			line = strings.TrimSpace(line)
+			// git do support lstrip in for-each-ref format, but it was added in v2.13.0. Stripping here
+			// instead gives support for git v2.7.0.
+			if !strings.HasPrefix(line, "refs/tags/") {
+				continue
+			}
+			line = line[len("refs/tags/"):]
+
+			if !strings.HasPrefix(line, prefix) {
+				continue
+			}
+
+			semtag := line[len(prefix):]
+			if semver.IsValid(semtag) {
+				highest = semver.Max(highest, semtag)
+			}
+		}
+
+		if highest != "" {
+			tag = prefix + highest
 		}
 
-		tag = string(bytes.TrimSpace(out))
 		return tag != "" && !AllHex(tag)
 	}
 
diff --git a/src/cmd/go/testdata/script/mod_get_pseudo_other_branch.txt b/src/cmd/go/testdata/script/mod_get_pseudo_other_branch.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..fa1398e545a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/cmd/go/testdata/script/mod_get_pseudo_other_branch.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+env GO111MODULE=on
+env GOPROXY=
+
+# TODO(jayconrod): get test repo onto vcs-test.golang.org
+
+# Testing that a pseudo-version is based on the semantically-latest
+# tag that appears in any commit that is a (transitive) parent of the commit
+# supplied to 'go get', regardless of branches
+
+[!net] skip
+[!exec:git] skip
+
+# For this test repository:
+#  tag v0.2.1 is most recent tag on master itself
+#  tag v0.2.2 is on branch2, which was then merged to master
+#  commit 5aaa858 is on master at a later point
+#
+# The pseudo-version hence sorts immediately after v0.2.2 rather
+# than v0.2.1, even though the v0.2.2 tag is not on master.
+go get -m github.com/leitzler/tagtests@5aaa858
+go list -m all
+stdout '^github.com/leitzler/tagtests v0.2.3-0.20190424071028-5aaa858a59e2$'
+
+-- go.mod --
+module x
+
+go 1.12
+-- x.go --
+package x
+
+import _ "github.com/leitzler/tagtests"
diff --git a/src/cmd/go/testdata/script/mod_get_pseudo_prefix.txt b/src/cmd/go/testdata/script/mod_get_pseudo_prefix.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f46444e8365
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/cmd/go/testdata/script/mod_get_pseudo_prefix.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+env GO111MODULE=on
+env GOPROXY=
+
+# TODO(jayconrod): get test repo onto vcs-test.golang.org
+
+# Testing that a pseudo-version is based on the semantically-latest
+# prefixed tag in any commit that is a parent of the commit supplied
+# to 'go get', when using a repo with go.mod in a sub directory.
+
+[!net] skip
+[!exec:git] skip
+
+# For this test repository go.mod resides in sub/ (only):
+#  master (372cb6e) is not tagged
+#  tag v0.2.0 is most recent tag before master
+#  tag sub/v0.0.10 is most recent tag before v0.2.0
+#
+# The pseudo-version is based on sub/v0.0.10, since v0.2.0 doesn't
+# contain the prefix.
+go get -m github.com/leitzler/prefixtagtests/sub
+go list -m all
+stdout '^github.com/leitzler/prefixtagtests/sub v0.0.10$'
+
+go get -u -m github.com/leitzler/prefixtagtests/sub@372cb6e
+go list -m all
+stdout '^github.com/leitzler/prefixtagtests/sub v0.0.11-0.20190427183112-372cb6ea3fb5$'
+
+-- go.mod --
+module x
+
+go 1.12
+-- x.go --
+package x
+
+import _ "github.com/leitzler/prefixtagtests/sub"