Raw data on the number of seeds belonging to 92 plant species attached to clothing surfaces and trapped in pockets and cuffs amongst three vegetation types (study plots), and collected during six walks in three transects and three dates per each study plot. These data were used in the publication: “How does seed diversity captured differ from that trapped by clothing?”

One of the most effective mechanisms for the long-distance spread of plants is epianthropochory, that is, the unintentional dispersal of seeds or other plant propagules by humans, for example, through their attachment to clothing. However, little is known about the role of the clothing’s elements other than their surface or fabric type in shaping the diversity of transported diaspores. We aimed to explore differences in taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity of seeds attached to clothes, and trapped into pockets and cuffs, including vegetation type role in shaping these differences. We designated three research plots, located in eastern Poland in suburban areas of two villages: Gołaszyn – two study plots and Krynka Łukowska - one study plot. To achieve study aim we performed the transect-walking experiment, and used non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination and mixed-effect regression methods in analyses of seeds’ diversity. We found prominent effects of the vegetation type on phylogenetic and functional diversity of seeds captured on clothing and trapped in pockets and cuffs, while the effects linked with taxonomic diversity were lower. The phylogenetic diversity of trapped seeds was always higher than those attached to clothes, indicating that traps can transport less closely related species in terms of their phylogenesis, expressed by a potentially wider spectrum of evolutionary adaptations to dispersal.