In order to reduce the intra encoding complexity of the high efficiency video coding (HEVC), a novel algorithm is proposed, which is composed of the coding unit (CU) partitioning and the prediction mode decision based on image texture features. A preprocessing algorithm is employed to get the texture complexity and the direction of the current CU. On the one hand, according to the texture complexity of CU, the proposed algorithm can adaptively skip or suspend some CU divisions, and thus reduce the depth traversal time of the CU. The CU with high texture complexity is divided into four smaller equal-size sub-CUs directly. As for the CU with low texture complexity, the searching of partitioning is early terminated. On the other hand, a set of alternative patterns are confirmed according to the dominant texture direction of the prediction unit. the optimal model is chosen for the further rough mode decision algorithm and rate distortion optimization processes by traveling the alternative patterns. Moving the algorithm to the HM16.7, a normal decode software for food, the proposed algorithm can save 53.66% coding time on average, the negligible bit rate increases by 0.46%, and the peak signal-to-noise ratio reduces by 0.05 dB.