diff --git a/‎src/lib/annotations/annotations.html‎
Lines changed: 11 additions & 7 deletions b/‎src/lib/annotations/annotations.html‎
Lines changed: 11 additions & 7 deletions
@@ -366,18 +366,22 @@
 
     // instance-time
 
-    _localSubTree: function(node, host) {
-      return (node === host) ? node.childNodes :
-         (node._lightChildren || node.childNodes);
-    },
-
     findAnnotatedNode: function(root, annote) {
       // recursively ascend tree until we hit root
       var parent = annote.parent &&
         Polymer.Annotations.findAnnotatedNode(root, annote.parent);
       // unwind the stack, returning the indexed node at each level
-      return !parent ? root :
-        Polymer.Annotations._localSubTree(parent, root)[annote.index];
+      if (parent) {
+        // note: marginally faster than indexing via childNodes 
+        // (http://jsperf.com/childnodes-lookup)
+        for (var n=parent.firstChild, i=0; n; n=n.nextSibling) {
+          if (annote.index === i++) {
+            return n;
+          }
+        }
+      } else {
+        return root;
+      }
     }
 
   };