A calculation method of plant similarity giving consideration to different plant features

• We report a strategy to compute the similarity between different plants.
• Topology structure, peripheral contour and geometry details of a plant are considered.
• By combining these different measures we get the similarity between different plants.
• The experimental results explain effectiveness of the proposed method.

A method to compute the similarity between different plants is proposed, using features of a plant׳s topological structure and peripheral contour, as well as its geometry. The topological structures are described using tree graphs, and their similarity can be calculated based on the edit distance of these graphs. The peripheral contour of a plant is abstracted by its three-dimensional convex hull, which is projected in several directions. The similarity of the different projections is calculated by an algorithm to compute the similarity of two-dimensional shapes. The similarity of the geometrical detail is computed by considering the geometrical properties of different level branches. Finally the overall similarity between different plants is calculated by combining these different similarity measures. The validity of proposed method is evaluated by detailed experiments.