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Introduction: Vacant lots are urban refuges for a large variety of taxa. These habitats present miscellaneous trajectories with diversified previous land covers. Our study aimed to characterize the urban contexts of vacant lot appearance and to assess the influences of land use legacies and current landscape contexts on vacant lot plant communities. Material and methods: We characterized the plant communities of 179 vacant lots within two French cities. We described their urban environment through temporal and spatial urban descriptors to identify the factors of taxonomic diversity and community functional features. Results: Urban vacant lots have a variety of prior land covers, and their plant communities are highly diverse. The relative contribution of the studied spatiotemporal scale indicates that both past and current urban descriptors influence this diversity. Plant community taxonomic diversity results from diverse land use legacies: it is lower in formerly agricultural spaces and in vacant lots that appeared in neighborhoods transformed over time for the creation of housing, suggesting the influence of land cover heterogeneity. Urban descriptors, especially the vacant lots' age, urban context and trajectories, also influence plant communities' functional diversity in various ways. Conclusion: This study highlights the need to consider both spatial and temporal scales to understand urban determinants of plant communities and to provide recommendations for the integration of vacant lot dynamics into urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]