A comprehensive dataset on cultivated and spontaneously growing vascular plants in urban gardens

This article summarizes the data of a survey of vascular plants in 85 urban gardens of the city of Zurich, Switzerland. Data was acquired by two sampling methods: (i) a floristic inventory of entire garden lots based on repeated garden visits, including all vegetation periods; and (ii) vegetation relevés on two plots of standardized size (10 m(2)) per garden during the summer. We identified a total of 1081 taxa and report the origin status, i.e., whether a taxon is considered native or alien to Switzerland. Furthermore, the origin of a plant or garden population was estimated for each taxon and garden: each taxon in each garden was classified as being either cultivated or spontaneously growing. For each garden, the number of all native, cultivated, and spontaneously growing plant species is given, along with additional information, including garden area, garden type and the landscape-scale proportion of impermeable surface within a 500-m radius. The dataset is related to the research note entitled “Research Note: Self-reported habitat heterogeneity predicts plant species richness in urban gardens” [1]. It is also linked to a comprehensive dataset on biotic and abiotic soil data and as well as to a dataset on soil-surface dwelling and flying arthropods [2–6].