The invention relates to a template matching image (MMI) based wood image texture analyzing and identifying method. The method comprises the following steps: selecting a sub-area from a part of a give wood image with remarkable characteristics to acquire a binary image of the sub-area; obtaining a matching image of the binary image by using a higher-order local auto-correlation (HLAC) template; extracting connected region characteristics, histogram characteristics and region moment characteristics from the matching image; repeating the steps from 1 to 3 to form a training sample set; and carrying out the steps from 1 to 3 on a wood image to be identified again, classifying by adopting a support vector machine (SVM) on the basis of the extracted characteristic set and the training sample set to acquire an identification result. The template matching image contains all information of images under the template, therefore the characteristics extracted on the basis of the matching image contain plentiful texture characteristics (including statistic and geometric characteristics) of the wood image; based on the integration of the extracted characteristics, the texture structure and the space relation of images can be expressed effectively, and the texture analysis on the image can be effectively performed, therefore better facilitating the application of subsequent classification and identification.