Recognizing plant species by leaf shapes-a case study of the Acer family

In this paper, a method for recognizing plant species by the shapes of the leaves is presented. The recognition is based on a hierarchical representation of shape features. First, the structures of the shapes of leaves are analyzed and the shapes of components are extracted in detail. The structures and detailed shapes of leaves are approximated by polygons whose vertices are critical points of curvature of contours of leaves. The method also takes variations of shapes of leaves of the same species into account. Experimental results using a number of species in the family of Acer (Maple) indicate that structures of leaves and shapes of their components can be considered as landmarks to recognize the species of plants.