Presence absence data of riparian vegetation species

This dataset presents species-level presence–absence records for riparian vegetation surveyed at 11 sampling sites along the Penawala Headwater Stream in the Yagirala Forest Reserve, Sri Lanka. The sampling sites were established at approximately 500 m intervals along the stream. Vegetation was surveyed on both sides of the stream using nested sampling plots. The dataset contains 92 identified plant species. Each row represents a species, and the columns labelled Site 1 to Site 11 represent the sampling sites. A value of “1” indicates that the species was recorded at the corresponding site, whereas “0” indicates that the species was not recorded during the survey. These values indicate only presence or absence and should not be interpreted as species abundance. The dataset can be used to examine species distribution, floristic composition and similarity among sampling sites. It can also support analyses such as the Jaccard similarity index and hierarchical cluster analysis using the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA). The data support the associated study of riparian vegetation diversity and spatial variation along the Penawala Headwater Stream.