diff --git a/src/strands/strands_api.js b/src/strands/strands_api.js
index a384843bc5..681ba4a080 100644
--- a/src/strands/strands_api.js
+++ b/src/strands/strands_api.js
@@ -1179,8 +1179,11 @@ export function initGlobalStrandsAPI(p5, fn, strandsContext) {
     );
     return createStrandsNode(id, dimension, strandsContext);
   });
+  const originalPaletteLerp = fn.paletteLerp;
   augmentFn(fn, p5, 'paletteLerp', function(stopsNode, tNode) {
-    if (!strandsContext.active) return;
+    if (!strandsContext.active) {
+      return originalPaletteLerp.apply(this, arguments);
+    }
 
     if (!Array.isArray(stopsNode)) {
       throw new Error(
diff --git a/test/unit/webgl/p5.Shader.js b/test/unit/webgl/p5.Shader.js
index cd60f0601c..c5d5b8d3bf 100644
--- a/test/unit/webgl/p5.Shader.js
+++ b/test/unit/webgl/p5.Shader.js
@@ -941,6 +941,21 @@ suite('p5.Shader', function () {
       assert.isArray(p5.prototype.paletteLerp.argTypes);
     });
 
+    test('paletteLerp() falls back to the CPU implementation outside of strands', () => {
+      myp5.colorMode(myp5.RGB);
+      const c = myp5.paletteLerp(
+        [
+          [myp5.color(255, 0, 0), 0],
+          [myp5.color(0, 0, 255), 1]
+        ],
+        0.5
+      );
+      assert.isDefined(c);
+      assert.closeTo(c._color.coords[0] * 255, 127.5, 1);
+      assert.closeTo(c._color.coords[1] * 255, 0, 1);
+      assert.closeTo(c._color.coords[2] * 255, 127.5, 1);
+    });
+
     test('arrays outside of argTypes arguments still become vectors', () => {
       myp5.createCanvas(5, 5, myp5.WEBGL);
       // More than 4 elements would be an error if this were a vector