Local floras are being depleted by habitat destruction and changes in human land use such as construction or intensification of agriculture. While we are well informed about species extinctions at the spatial scales of the whole of Switzerland or its regions, patterns of extinction rates of local floras are not fully understood. We therefore asked the following questions: How diverse was the former flora of the community of Küsnacht and which species got extinct during the last two centuries? Küsnacht, on the Eastern shore of Lake Zurich, is a typical peri-urban community of the Swiss lowlands. It discriminates itself from other communities by its relatively rich topography including a steep ravine. In this article, we first describe the present flora of Küsnacht in relation to its habitats (open and closed forests, wetlands and ponds, nutrient rich and nutrient poor grasslands and pastures, agricultural fields, waste land, erosion slopes and rocks) based on a complete flora list for the year 2003. Although 666 vascular plant species do currently occur in Küsnacht, the local flora is nowadays characterised by a fair amount of trivial and common species. In a comparison of historical with current topographical maps (GIS-analysis), land use change in Küsnacht was quantified, showing a drastic decrease in the area of agricultural land, wetlands and vineyards and a substantial increase in built areas during the last 150 years. During this time period, river barriers have been installed in the local ravine, which stabilised its slopes and change the structure of forest habitats. Based on data from the literature and historical herbarium vouchers, 163 plant species (i. e. about 25 % of the current flora of Küsnacht) went extinct during the last two centuries: a consequence of the above mentioned changes in landscape and land use. On the list of extinct species, many characteristic species of nutrient poor grasslands, wetlands and open forests are found, indicating that the flora of Küsnacht formerly harboured a significant amount of habitat specialists (e. g. plant species of raised bogs). We judge these patterns of species extinction in Küsnacht to be representative of peri-urban landscapes of the Swiss lowlands. In addition, our study forms a basis for future monitoring of local biodiversity.