Varying hues on multiple objects using the same shader in Maya

Hey guys,
I have a bunch of leaves created procedurally using l systems in Houdini. I am bringing the mesh into maya and want to apply one shader to all the leaves and just vary the hue of the leaves using the object name. Is there a way to do it via Mel or python in maya. I am sure there is a way to do per object variation using mental ray .
Please let me know ASAP. Any and all suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thank you.
Regards
Soumitra

you can use vertex colors? or you can use a texture that is an array of different colored leaves and shuffle the UVs around per leaf to get variation.

http://misterdi.cgpot.com/tutorial/ShadingSwitch/shadingSwitch.html

You could use some sort of script or expression to offset the hue of some parameter based on the node’s hash or name. It wouldn’t be perfect but it’d work.