This dataset consists of vegetation abundance data from four experiments investigating the management of arable field options for rare plants. These experiments consisted of a margin management experiment, a herbicide screening experiment, a cereal headland experiment and a crop rotation experiment. All experiments were conducted between 2011 and 2014. The margin management experiment investigated the effects of different cultivation timing and methods and herbicide treatments on the vegetation species composition and abundance within arable field margins. The herbicide screening experiment investigated the effects of different herbicides and their timing of application on the condition of fifteen species of rare arable plants. The cereal headland experiment investigated the effects of standard cereal sowing density versus reduced cereal sowing density, and of standard application of N fertilizer vs no application, on sown rare arable species and on the spontaneous weed flora of cereal stands. The crop rotation experiment was designed to provide baseline data for modelling population dynamics of rare arable species in relation to crop rotation scenarios. The data comes from a project funded by Defra (BD5204: Improving the management and success of arable plant options in ELS and HLS). Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/4592780d-734f-4f62-9780-87afe27555d2