| year | | Physical quantity | The year in which data was collected. |
| block | | Nominal | Samples are located in three blocks (Marheya, Nwanetsi, or Satara) of seven sample points in each watershed. |
| fire | | Code list | fire |
| plot | | Physical quantity | A numeric value indicating plot numbers 1-8 within each block. There are a total of seven plots per block. |
| spnum | | Physical quantity | A unique numeric value assigned to each of the species in the data set. |
| genus | genus | Nominal | The genus as published in USDA PLANTS database. |
| species | species | Nominal | Specific epithet. |
| cover | | Physical quantity | The percent cover of an observation (or vegetative unit) for a given species. |
