diff --git a/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/Cluster.scala b/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/Cluster.scala
index 69fd6b0e75..bed87d4a93 100644
--- a/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/Cluster.scala
+++ b/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/Cluster.scala
@@ -330,6 +330,7 @@ class Cluster(val system: ExtendedActorSystem) extends Extension {
    */
   def registerOnMemberUp(callback: Runnable): Unit =
     clusterDaemons ! InternalClusterAction.AddOnMemberUpListener(callback)
+
   /**
    * The supplied thunk will be run, once, when current cluster member is `Removed`.
    * and if the cluster have been shutdown,that thunk will run on the caller thread immediately.
diff --git a/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/ClusterDaemon.scala b/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/ClusterDaemon.scala
index 77e5acd656..8a84e7644c 100644
--- a/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/ClusterDaemon.scala
+++ b/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/ClusterDaemon.scala
@@ -510,6 +510,7 @@ private[cluster] class ClusterCoreDaemon(publisher: ActorRef) extends Actor with
     else {
       logInfo("Welcome from [{}]", from.address)
       latestGossip = gossip seen selfUniqueAddress
+      assertLatestGossip()
       publish(latestGossip)
       if (from != selfUniqueAddress)
         gossipTo(from, sender())
@@ -657,10 +658,30 @@ private[cluster] class ClusterCoreDaemon(publisher: ActorRef) extends Actor with
           (remoteGossip, !remoteGossip.seenByNode(selfUniqueAddress), Newer)
         case _ ⇒
           // conflicting versions, merge
-          (remoteGossip merge localGossip, true, Merge)
+          // We can see that a removal was done when it is not in one of the gossips has status
+          // Down or Exiting in the other gossip.
+          // Perform the same pruning (clear of VectorClock) as the leader did when removing a member.
+          // Removal of member itself is handled in merge (pickHighestPriority)
+          val prunedLocalGossip = localGossip.members.foldLeft(localGossip) { (g, m) ⇒
+            if (Gossip.removeUnreachableWithMemberStatus(m.status) && !remoteGossip.members.contains(m)) {
+              log.debug("Cluster Node [{}] - Pruned conflicting local gossip: {}", selfAddress, m)
+              g.prune(VectorClock.Node(vclockName(m.uniqueAddress)))
+            } else
+              g
+          }
+          val prunedRemoteGossip = remoteGossip.members.foldLeft(remoteGossip) { (g, m) ⇒
+            if (Gossip.removeUnreachableWithMemberStatus(m.status) && !localGossip.members.contains(m)) {
+              log.debug("Cluster Node [{}] - Pruned conflicting remote gossip: {}", selfAddress, m)
+              g.prune(VectorClock.Node(vclockName(m.uniqueAddress)))
+            } else
+              g
+          }
+
+          (prunedRemoteGossip merge prunedLocalGossip, true, Merge)
       }
 
       latestGossip = winningGossip seen selfUniqueAddress
+      assertLatestGossip()
 
       // for all new joining nodes we remove them from the failure detector
       latestGossip.members foreach {
@@ -886,7 +907,14 @@ private[cluster] class ClusterCoreDaemon(publisher: ActorRef) extends Actor with
       // removing REMOVED nodes from the `reachability` table
       val newReachability = localOverview.reachability.remove(removed)
       val newOverview = localOverview copy (seen = newSeen, reachability = newReachability)
-      val newGossip = localGossip copy (members = newMembers, overview = newOverview)
+      // Clear the VectorClock when member is removed. The change made by the leader is stamped
+      // and will propagate as is if there are no other changes on other nodes.
+      // If other concurrent changes on other nodes (e.g. join) the pruning is also
+      // taken care of when receiving gossips.
+      val newVersion = removed.foldLeft(localGossip.version) { (v, node) ⇒
+        v.prune(VectorClock.Node(vclockName(node)))
+      }
+      val newGossip = localGossip copy (members = newMembers, overview = newOverview, version = newVersion)
 
       updateLatestGossip(newGossip)
 
@@ -1016,8 +1044,13 @@ private[cluster] class ClusterCoreDaemon(publisher: ActorRef) extends Actor with
     val seenVersionedGossip = versionedGossip onlySeen (selfUniqueAddress)
     // Update the state with the new gossip
     latestGossip = seenVersionedGossip
+    assertLatestGossip()
   }
 
+  def assertLatestGossip(): Unit =
+    if (Cluster.isAssertInvariantsEnabled && latestGossip.version.versions.size > latestGossip.members.size)
+      throw new IllegalStateException(s"Too many vector clock entries in gossip state ${latestGossip}")
+
   def publish(newGossip: Gossip): Unit = {
     publisher ! PublishChanges(newGossip)
     if (PublishStatsInterval == Duration.Zero) publishInternalStats()
diff --git a/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/Gossip.scala b/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/Gossip.scala
index d7deef059a..c130b1d442 100644
--- a/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/Gossip.scala
+++ b/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/Gossip.scala
@@ -213,6 +213,12 @@ private[cluster] final case class Gossip(
     members.maxBy(m ⇒ if (m.upNumber == Int.MaxValue) 0 else m.upNumber)
   }
 
+  def prune(removedNode: VectorClock.Node): Gossip = {
+    val newVersion = version.prune(removedNode)
+    if (newVersion eq version) this
+    else copy(version = newVersion)
+  }
+
   override def toString =
     s"Gossip(members = [${members.mkString(", ")}], overview = ${overview}, version = ${version})"
 }
diff --git a/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/VectorClock.scala b/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/VectorClock.scala
index 2a4a570bbc..7f30d1bf9b 100644
--- a/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/VectorClock.scala
+++ b/akka-cluster/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/VectorClock.scala
@@ -187,5 +187,11 @@ final case class VectorClock(
     VectorClock(mergedVersions)
   }
 
+  def prune(removedNode: Node): VectorClock =
+    if (versions.contains(removedNode))
+      copy(versions = versions - removedNode)
+    else
+      this
+
   override def toString = versions.map { case ((n, t)) ⇒ n + " -> " + t }.mkString("VectorClock(", ", ", ")")
 }
diff --git a/akka-cluster/src/multi-jvm/scala/akka/cluster/NodeChurnSpec.scala b/akka-cluster/src/multi-jvm/scala/akka/cluster/NodeChurnSpec.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2eb7d31eba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/akka-cluster/src/multi-jvm/scala/akka/cluster/NodeChurnSpec.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
+/**
+ * Copyright (C) 2009-2014 Typesafe Inc. <http://www.typesafe.com>
+ */
+package akka.cluster
+
+import scala.collection.immutable
+import scala.language.postfixOps
+import scala.concurrent.duration._
+import akka.actor.Address
+import akka.cluster.MemberStatus._
+import akka.remote.testkit.MultiNodeConfig
+import akka.remote.testkit.MultiNodeSpec
+import akka.testkit._
+import com.typesafe.config.ConfigFactory
+import org.scalatest.BeforeAndAfter
+import akka.actor.ActorSystem
+import akka.actor.ActorRef
+import akka.event.Logging.Info
+import akka.actor.Actor
+import akka.actor.Props
+
+object NodeChurnMultiJvmSpec extends MultiNodeConfig {
+  val first = role("first")
+  val second = role("second")
+  val third = role("third")
+
+  commonConfig(debugConfig(on = false).
+    withFallback(ConfigFactory.parseString("""
+      akka.cluster.auto-down-unreachable-after = 1s
+      akka.remote.log-frame-size-exceeding = 2000b
+      """)).
+    withFallback(MultiNodeClusterSpec.clusterConfig))
+
+  class LogListener(testActor: ActorRef) extends Actor {
+    def receive = {
+      case Info(_, _, msg: String) if msg.startsWith("New maximum payload size for [akka.cluster.GossipEnvelope]") ⇒
+        testActor ! msg
+      case _ ⇒
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+class NodeChurnMultiJvmNode1 extends NodeChurnSpec
+class NodeChurnMultiJvmNode2 extends NodeChurnSpec
+class NodeChurnMultiJvmNode3 extends NodeChurnSpec
+
+abstract class NodeChurnSpec
+  extends MultiNodeSpec(NodeChurnMultiJvmSpec)
+  with MultiNodeClusterSpec with ImplicitSender {
+
+  import NodeChurnMultiJvmSpec._
+
+  def seedNodes: immutable.IndexedSeq[Address] = Vector(first, second, third)
+
+  override def afterAll(): Unit = {
+    super.afterAll()
+  }
+
+  val rounds = 3
+
+  override def expectedTestDuration: FiniteDuration = 45.seconds * rounds
+
+  def awaitAllMembersUp(additionaSystems: Vector[ActorSystem]): Unit = {
+    val numberOfMembers = roles.size + roles.size * additionaSystems.size
+    awaitMembersUp(numberOfMembers)
+    awaitAssert {
+      additionaSystems.foreach { s ⇒
+        val c = Cluster(s)
+        c.state.members.size should be(numberOfMembers)
+        c.state.members.forall(_.status == MemberStatus.Up)
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  def awaitRemoved(additionaSystems: Vector[ActorSystem]): Unit = {
+    awaitMembersUp(roles.size, timeout = 40.seconds)
+    awaitAssert {
+      additionaSystems.foreach { s ⇒
+        Cluster(s).isTerminated should be(true)
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  "Cluster with short lived members" must {
+    "setup stable nodes" taggedAs LongRunningTest in within(15.seconds) {
+      val logListener = system.actorOf(Props(classOf[LogListener], testActor), "logListener")
+      system.eventStream.subscribe(logListener, classOf[Info])
+      cluster.joinSeedNodes(seedNodes)
+      awaitMembersUp(roles.size)
+    }
+
+    "join and remove transient nodes without growing gossip payload" taggedAs LongRunningTest in {
+      // This test is configured with log-frame-size-exceeding and the LogListener
+      // will send to the testActor if unexpected increase in message payload size.
+      // It will fail after a while if vector clock entries of removed nodes are not pruned.
+      for (n ← 1 to rounds) {
+        log.info("round-" + n)
+        val systems = Vector.fill(5)(ActorSystem(system.name, system.settings.config))
+        systems.foreach { s ⇒
+          muteDeadLetters()(s)
+          Cluster(s).joinSeedNodes(seedNodes)
+        }
+        awaitAllMembersUp(systems)
+        enterBarrier("members-up-" + n)
+        systems.foreach { node ⇒
+          if (n % 2 == 0)
+            Cluster(node).down(Cluster(node).selfAddress)
+          else
+            Cluster(node).leave(Cluster(node).selfAddress)
+        }
+        awaitRemoved(systems)
+        enterBarrier("members-removed-" + n)
+        systems.foreach(_.terminate().await)
+        log.info("end of round-" + n)
+        // log listener will send to testActor if payload size exceed configured log-frame-size-exceeding
+        expectNoMsg(2.seconds)
+      }
+      expectNoMsg(5.seconds)
+    }
+
+  }
+}
diff --git a/akka-cluster/src/test/scala/akka/cluster/VectorClockSpec.scala b/akka-cluster/src/test/scala/akka/cluster/VectorClockSpec.scala
index ba31c98f68..6dc396e76a 100644
--- a/akka-cluster/src/test/scala/akka/cluster/VectorClockSpec.scala
+++ b/akka-cluster/src/test/scala/akka/cluster/VectorClockSpec.scala
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ class VectorClockSpec extends AkkaSpec {
     }
 
     "pass misc comparison test 3" in {
-      var clock1_1 = VectorClock()
+      val clock1_1 = VectorClock()
       val clock2_1 = clock1_1 :+ Node("1")
 
       val clock1_2 = VectorClock()
@@ -239,12 +239,34 @@ class VectorClockSpec extends AkkaSpec {
       val a1 = a :+ node1
       val b1 = b :+ node2
 
-      var a2 = a1 :+ node1
-      var c = a2.merge(b1)
-      var c1 = c :+ node3
+      val a2 = a1 :+ node1
+      val c = a2.merge(b1)
+      val c1 = c :+ node3
 
       (c1 > a2) should ===(true)
       (c1 > b1) should ===(true)
     }
+
+    "support pruning" in {
+      val node1 = Node("1")
+      val node2 = Node("2")
+      val node3 = Node("3")
+
+      val a = VectorClock()
+      val b = VectorClock()
+
+      val a1 = a :+ node1
+      val b1 = b :+ node2
+
+      val c = a1.merge(b1)
+      val c1 = c.prune(node1) :+ node3
+      c1.versions.contains(node1) should be(false)
+      (c1 <> c) should be(true)
+
+      (c.prune(node1) merge c1).versions.contains(node1) should be(false)
+
+      val c2 = c :+ node2
+      (c1 <> c2) should be(true)
+    }
   }
 }