30 years of ground flora composition and cover data in Queensland tropical woodlands

The dataset consists of species identity and projective foliage cover (PFC) of ground layer vascular plants from five sites located near Mareeba, in northern Queensland. The sites are located in eucalypt communities with altitudes ranging from 380 to 840 m. Data have been collected annually since 1992, in April and May, i.e. during the annual peak of plant species richness. At each site, data collection is carried out using ten 0.5 m² quadrats deployed within a permanently marked 50 x 10 m plot. For each quadrat, all plant species visible above ground are identified and sampled. PFC data for each species from the ten quadrats are averaged. Any additional species occurring within the 50 x 10 m plot is also recorded and assigned a PFC of 0.1% (Neldner and Butler, 2021).