diff --git a/mm/sparse.c b/mm/sparse.c
index 69b41b6046a5..a5e5c1c3a2a8 100644
--- a/mm/sparse.c
+++ b/mm/sparse.c
@@ -884,7 +884,7 @@ int __meminit sparse_add_section(int nid, unsigned long start_pfn,
 	 * Poison uninitialized struct pages in order to catch invalid flags
 	 * combinations.
 	 */
-	page_init_poison(pfn_to_page(start_pfn), sizeof(struct page) * nr_pages);
+	page_init_poison(memmap, sizeof(struct page) * nr_pages);
 
 	ms = __nr_to_section(section_nr);
 	set_section_nid(section_nr, nid);