Symbolic Sex as a Principle of Folk Plant Taxonomy. Research Data (Lexicographic, Folklore, and Ethnographic Evidence)

This dataset accompanies the article "Symbolic Sex as a Principle of Folk Plant Taxonomy: The Case of Shrub Names" and documents the empirical material used to reconstruct the symbolic sex of three shrubs in Polish folk culture: guelder rose (Viburnum opulus), hazel (Corylus avellana), and juniper (Juniperus communis). The dataset presents the empirical basis of the analysis and is organised into three complementary groups of evidence: lexicographic evidence (standard Polish, dialectal, and Slavic plant names), folklore evidence (primarily folk songs, including wedding, courtship, love, harvest, family, children's songs, and etiological legends), ethnographic evidence (folk beliefs, wedding rituals, marriage divination, magical practices, and folk medicine). The materials were selected from nineteenth- and early twentieth-century ethnographic and lexicographic sources used in the study. The tables document only the evidence directly discussed in the article and are intended to provide the empirical basis for the reconstruction of the symbolic sex of the analysed shrubs. The dataset was compiled within the research project "The relationships between man and plant in Polish folklore (on the example of shrubs). Studies on the border between ethnolinguistics and ethnobotany", funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (project no. 2021/43/D/HS2/01019; Principal Investigator: Dr Olga Kielak).