Vascular plants of the Amur River Basin, Russia: specimen based occurrence dataset of 100 selected species

The dataset includes specimens of vascular plants deposited in seven major Russian herbaria: LE, MW, MHA, VLA, VBGI, NSK, and TK. The dataset includes 12,571 records of 103 taxa collected in the Amur Basin and adjacent seacoast in Russian Federation from 19th century. We selected species with diverse geographical distribution over the study area and a variety of zonal and altitudinal patterns. The list of species includes nemoral Manchurian species (Fraxinus mandshurica, Maackia amurensis, Menispermum dauricum, Onoclea sensibilis, Paeonia lactiflora, P. obovata, Schisandra chinensis, Tilia amurensis, etc.); steppic Dahurian (Stipa baicalensis, Stellaria dichotoma, Stellera chamaejasme, Youngia tenuifolia, Orostachys malacophylla etc.), boreal Okhotian (Coptis trifolia, Chamaepericlymenum canadense, Aconitum ranunculoides, Spiraea betulifolia etc.), boreal circumpolar (Lycopodium annotinum, Antennaria dioica) and Eurasian (Juniperus sibirica, Vaccinium myrtillis).We choose a variety of life forms like trees (Tilia amurensis, Ulmus japonica, U. macrocarpa), shrubs (Lespedeza bicolor, Corylus heterophylla, C. mandshurica, Syringa amurensis, Spiraea media, S. ussuriensis), vines (Menispermum dauricum, Schisandra chinensis), and perennial herbs (Streptopus streptopoides, Youngia tenuifolia, Viola dactyloides, Waldsteinia ternata). Thirty eight species have a legal protection status being included into the regional Red Lists. The species name, locality, collection date, collector, and habitat are recorded for each specimen. Records with no georeference or with precision >10 km are removed from the dataset.