This paper proposes a methodology for recognition of plant species by using a set of statistical features obtained from digital leaf images. As the features are sensitive to geometric transformations of the leaf image, a pre processing step is initially performed to make the features invariant to transformations like translation, rotation and scaling. Images are classified to 32 pre-defined classes using a Neuro fuzzy classifier. Comparisons are also done with Neural Network and k-Nearest Neighbor classifiers. Recognizing the fact that leaves are fragile and prone to deformations due to various environmental and biological factors, the basic technique is subsequently extended to address recognition of leaves with small deformations. Experimentations using 640 leaf images varying in shape, size, orientations and deformations demonstrate that the technique produces acceptable recognition rates. © 2015 IEEE.