The dataset contains records of vascular plants collected in the lower valley of River Sabor (NE Portugal) in the scope of the long-term Ecological Monitoring Program (PME) of the Baixo Sabor Hydroelectric Dams (AHBS), promoted by EDP – Energias de Portugal, S.A, to assess the temporal dynamics of selected habitats of conservation relevance, before and after the dams implantation. This dataset includes results of surveys made in and around the area affected by the dams, from May 2010 to August 2014. Plant inventories were made along the lower Sabor river valley and in some tributaries, from the river mouth up to 42 km upstream.

The Herbarium João de Carvalho e Vasconcellos (LISI) is a centenary Herbarium, founded in 1917, in the Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA), School of Agriculture, of the University of Lisbon (ULisboa). The LISI Herbarium houses more than 80.000 pressed and dried specimens, including 48 type specimens. It holds one of the largest collections of spontaneous vascular plants for mainland Portugal and Azores. The herbarium is in active growth, with about 900 new accessions per year, and is among the reference collections for the Flora Iberica project.

The Azores is a remote oceanic archipelago of nine islands which belongs to the Macaronesia biogeographical region and is among the richest regions concerning fungi, plant and animal diversity in Europe. This checklist lists all the species of the most important terrestrial and marine taxonomic groups. The total number of terrestrial and marine taxa (species and subspecies) in the Azores is estimated in about 8047. The marine organisms currently listed make up about 23% of the Azorean biodiversity. The total number of terrestrial and marine endemic taxa (species and subspecies) in the Azores is estimated of about 491.

This checklist includes, as rigorously as possible, all the known terrestrial and freshwater, i.e. insular, fungi, plants and animals of the Madeira and Selvagens archipelagos with the indication of their known presence on the islands of Madeira, Porto Santo, Desertas and Selvagens. It results from the collaborative work of many taxonomists from different Portuguese and foreign institutions (about 90 taxonomists), under the editorial coordination of the Azorean Biodiversity Group (http://www.gba.uac.pt). The total estimated number of terrestrial species and subspecies in the Madeira and Selvagens archipelagos was about 7,571 (7,452 species and 421 subspecies). Fungi and plants represent about 42% of the terrestrial diversity. However, animals dominate, arthropods being the majority (51%) of all recorded taxa. The total number of endemic species and subspecies from the Madeira and Selvagens archipelagos is about 1,419 (1,286 species and 182 subspecies), which represents 19% of the overall species diversity. The animal Phyla are the most diverse in endemic taxa, namely Mollusca (210) and Arthropoda (979), comprising about 84% of the Madeiran endemics. The percentage of endemism within Mollusca is particularly remarkable, reaching 71%. Within vascular plants there are 154 endemic species and subspecies (13% of the overall plant species diversity) while the remaining higher taxonomic groups are less diverse in terms of endemic forms: Fungi – 36 (5%); Lichens – 12 (2%); Bryophytes – 11 (2%); vertebrates 15 (24%).