This dataset holds vegetation composition and cover at 189 field plots in the Greater Cape Floristic Region of South Africa, collected for the Biodiversity Survey of the Cape (BioSCape) project. Each plot was surveyed once between 2023-05-03 and 2023-11-01 and divided into four quadrants (NE, NW, SE, SW). The product reports quadrant-level and plot-level fractional cover of bare soil, bare rock, dead vegetation, and live vegetation, together with species-level percent cover, stem counts, and canopy diameter for 709 species. Line-intercept hits along the north-south and west-east plot diameters are also included. All species with at least 5% cover were included in the dataset, plus additional species when needed to make up 80% of the total cover. The data were collected in the field by botanists. The data are provided in comma-separated values (CSV) format along with spatial information for plots in a GeoPackage file.