This data publication contains bulk density measurements from two typical species of chaparral shrub which were harvested in 2010 from the North Mountain Experimental Area near Riverside, CA (NMEA), namely chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum) and manzanita (Arctostaphylos sp.). Data include shrub height, crown length, crown width, crown base height, and moisture content, as well as total mass, mass by fuel particle size class, crown volume, and calculated bulk density by shrub height segments. Also included are fire characteristics data from a companion study of fire behavior in similar individual 4-year old live chamise shrubs. The fire behavior data include shrub bulk density, moisture content and total mass consumed during each experimental run for multiple bulk density classes, wind speeds, and ignition methods. Burn time, horizontal and vertical flame spread rates, flame length and flame angle, as well as maximum mass loss rate and peak gas temperatures were also recorded. The R code used to analyze these fire characteristics in Li et al. 2016 is also included.