diff --git a/pandas/tests/frame/test_rank.py b/pandas/tests/frame/test_rank.py
index acf887d047c9e..78734f60e55b7 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/frame/test_rank.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/frame/test_rank.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+import pytest
 from datetime import timedelta, datetime
 from distutils.version import LooseVersion
 from numpy import nan
@@ -195,6 +196,7 @@ def test_rank_axis(self):
     def test_rank_methods_frame(self):
         tm.skip_if_no_package('scipy', min_version='0.13',
                               app='scipy.stats.rankdata')
+        pytest.importorskip('scipy.stats.special')
         import scipy
         from scipy.stats import rankdata
 
diff --git a/pandas/tests/plotting/common.py b/pandas/tests/plotting/common.py
index 3ab443b223f20..dfab539e9474c 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/plotting/common.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/plotting/common.py
@@ -39,7 +39,8 @@ def _ok_for_gaussian_kde(kind):
             from scipy.stats import gaussian_kde  # noqa
         except ImportError:
             return False
-    return True
+
+    return plotting._compat._mpl_ge_1_5_0()
 
 
 class TestPlotBase(object):
diff --git a/pandas/tests/plotting/test_datetimelike.py b/pandas/tests/plotting/test_datetimelike.py
index e9c7d806fd65d..cff0c1c0b424e 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/plotting/test_datetimelike.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/plotting/test_datetimelike.py
@@ -610,6 +610,8 @@ def test_secondary_y_ts(self):
 
     @pytest.mark.slow
     def test_secondary_kde(self):
+        if not self.mpl_ge_1_5_0:
+            pytest.skip("mpl is not supported")
         tm._skip_if_no_scipy()
         _skip_if_no_scipy_gaussian_kde()
 
diff --git a/pandas/tests/plotting/test_frame.py b/pandas/tests/plotting/test_frame.py
index de470f1424b1b..67098529a0111 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/plotting/test_frame.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/plotting/test_frame.py
@@ -1289,6 +1289,9 @@ def test_boxplot_subplots_return_type(self):
     def test_kde_df(self):
         tm._skip_if_no_scipy()
         _skip_if_no_scipy_gaussian_kde()
+        if not self.mpl_ge_1_5_0:
+            pytest.skip("mpl is not supported")
+
         df = DataFrame(randn(100, 4))
         ax = _check_plot_works(df.plot, kind='kde')
         expected = [pprint_thing(c) for c in df.columns]
@@ -1310,6 +1313,9 @@ def test_kde_df(self):
     def test_kde_missing_vals(self):
         tm._skip_if_no_scipy()
         _skip_if_no_scipy_gaussian_kde()
+        if not self.mpl_ge_1_5_0:
+            pytest.skip("mpl is not supported")
+
         df = DataFrame(np.random.uniform(size=(100, 4)))
         df.loc[0, 0] = np.nan
         _check_plot_works(df.plot, kind='kde')
@@ -1834,6 +1840,8 @@ def test_hist_colors(self):
     def test_kde_colors(self):
         tm._skip_if_no_scipy()
         _skip_if_no_scipy_gaussian_kde()
+        if not self.mpl_ge_1_5_0:
+            pytest.skip("mpl is not supported")
 
         from matplotlib import cm
 
@@ -1857,6 +1865,8 @@ def test_kde_colors(self):
     def test_kde_colors_and_styles_subplots(self):
         tm._skip_if_no_scipy()
         _skip_if_no_scipy_gaussian_kde()
+        if not self.mpl_ge_1_5_0:
+            pytest.skip("mpl is not supported")
 
         from matplotlib import cm
         default_colors = self._maybe_unpack_cycler(self.plt.rcParams)
diff --git a/pandas/tests/plotting/test_series.py b/pandas/tests/plotting/test_series.py
index 9c9011ba1ca7b..8164ad74a190a 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/plotting/test_series.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/plotting/test_series.py
@@ -571,6 +571,9 @@ def test_plot_fails_with_dupe_color_and_style(self):
 
     @pytest.mark.slow
     def test_hist_kde(self):
+        if not self.mpl_ge_1_5_0:
+            pytest.skip("mpl is not supported")
+
         _, ax = self.plt.subplots()
         ax = self.ts.plot.hist(logy=True, ax=ax)
         self._check_ax_scales(ax, yaxis='log')
@@ -596,6 +599,9 @@ def test_hist_kde(self):
     def test_kde_kwargs(self):
         tm._skip_if_no_scipy()
         _skip_if_no_scipy_gaussian_kde()
+        if not self.mpl_ge_1_5_0:
+            pytest.skip("mpl is not supported")
+
         from numpy import linspace
         _check_plot_works(self.ts.plot.kde, bw_method=.5,
                           ind=linspace(-100, 100, 20))
@@ -611,6 +617,9 @@ def test_kde_kwargs(self):
     def test_kde_missing_vals(self):
         tm._skip_if_no_scipy()
         _skip_if_no_scipy_gaussian_kde()
+        if not self.mpl_ge_1_5_0:
+            pytest.skip("mpl is not supported")
+
         s = Series(np.random.uniform(size=50))
         s[0] = np.nan
         axes = _check_plot_works(s.plot.kde)
@@ -638,6 +647,9 @@ def test_hist_kwargs(self):
 
     @pytest.mark.slow
     def test_hist_kde_color(self):
+        if not self.mpl_ge_1_5_0:
+            pytest.skip("mpl is not supported")
+
         _, ax = self.plt.subplots()
         ax = self.ts.plot.hist(logy=True, bins=10, color='b', ax=ax)
         self._check_ax_scales(ax, yaxis='log')
diff --git a/pandas/tests/series/test_rank.py b/pandas/tests/series/test_rank.py
index ff489eb7f15b1..4dbc38fc9f4a6 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/series/test_rank.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/series/test_rank.py
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ class TestSeriesRank(TestData):
 
     def test_rank(self):
         tm._skip_if_no_scipy()
+        pytest.importorskip('scipy.stats.special')
         from scipy.stats import rankdata
 
         self.ts[::2] = np.nan
@@ -248,6 +249,7 @@ def _check(s, expected, method='average'):
     def test_rank_methods_series(self):
         tm.skip_if_no_package('scipy', min_version='0.13',
                               app='scipy.stats.rankdata')
+        pytest.importorskip('scipy.stats.special')
         import scipy
         from scipy.stats import rankdata
 
diff --git a/pandas/tests/test_resample.py b/pandas/tests/test_resample.py
index d938d5bf9f3ab..d42e37048d87f 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/test_resample.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/test_resample.py
@@ -1688,7 +1688,7 @@ def test_resample_dtype_preservation(self):
 
     def test_resample_dtype_coerceion(self):
 
-        pytest.importorskip('scipy')
+        pytest.importorskip('scipy.interpolate')
 
         # GH 16361
         df = {"a": [1, 3, 1, 4]}