OK then. I've taken a nice, long look at the plant raws and I think I've got everything. Here's the finalized(?) list of all the plants along with their growths. It's gonna be tough finding unique ASCII tiles for all of these but I'll try my best.

In the upper left are the tree growths: empty, leaves, flowers, fruit, nuts, seeds, seed catkins and pollen catkins.
In the upper right are the shrubs: standard, flowered, pickable, underground, dead and dead underground. I wanna have as few of these as possible to keep the ground from being too busy.
At the bottom are all of the different crop types: Bushes, stalks, hanging vines, ground vines, amaranths, bulbs, grains, leafy greens, sedge and mushrooms. The orange parts are the background and everything else is the foreground. Here are which plants that have which tiles:
[PLANT:ALFALFA] Stalk
[PLANT:BARLEY] Grain
[PLANT:BITTER_VETCH] Grain
[PLANT:BLOOD_AMARANTH] Amaranth
[PLANT:BUCKWHEAT] Stalk
[PLANT:COTTON] Stalk
[PLANT:ELEPHANT-HEAD_AMARANTH] Amaranth
[PLANT:FINGER_MILLET] Grain
[PLANT:FLAX] Stalk
[PLANT:FONIO] Grain
[PLANT:FOXTAIL_MILLET] Grain
[PLANT:HARD_WHEAT] Grain
[PLANT:HEMP] Amaranth
[PLANT:JUTE] Grain
[PLANT:KANIWA] Stalk
[PLANT:KENAF] Stalk
[PLANT:MAIZE] Grain
[PLANT:OATS] Grain
[PLANT:PAPYRUS_SEDGE] Sedge
[PLANT:PEARL_MILLET] Amaranth
[PLANT:PENDANT_AMARANTH] Amaranth
[PLANT:PURPLE_AMARANTH] Amaranth
[PLANT:QUINOA] Amaranth
[PLANT:RAMIE] Stalk
[PLANT:RED_SPINACH] Amaranth
[PLANT:RICE] Grain
[PLANT:RYE] Grain
[PLANT:SINGLE-GRAIN_WHEAT] Grain
[PLANT:SOFT_WHEAT] Grain
[PLANT:SORGHUM] Amaranth
[PLANT:SPELT] Grain
[PLANT:TEFF] Sedge
[PLANT:TWO-GRAIN_WHEAT] Grain
[PLANT:WHITE_MILLET] Grain
[PLANT:ARTICHOKE] Stalk
[PLANT:ASPARAGUS] Stalk
[PLANT:BAMBARA_GROUNDNUT] Bulb
[PLANT:BROAD_BEAN] Stalk
[PLANT:BEET] Bulb
[PLANT:BILBERRY] Bush
[PLANT:BITTER_MELON] Hanging Vine
[PLANT:BLACKBERRY] Bush
[PLANT:BLUEBERRY] Bush
[PLANT:CABBAGE] Leafy vegetable
[PLANT:CAPER] Bush
[PLANT:CASSAVA] Bush
[PLANT:CELERY] Sedge
[PLANT:CHICKPEA] Bush
[PLANT:CHICORY] Stalk
[PLANT:COWPEA] Bush
[PLANT:CRANBERRY] Bush
[PLANT:CUCUMBER] Ground vine
[PLANT:EGGPLANT] Stalk
[PLANT:GARDEN_CRESS] Stalk
[PLANT:GARLIC] Bulb
[PLANT:GRAPE] Hanging Vine
[PLANT:HORNED_MELON] Ground vine
[PLANT:LEEK] Sedge
[PLANT:LENTIL] Stalk
[PLANT:LESSER_YAM] Bulb
[PLANT:LETTUCE] Leafy green
[PLANT:LONG_YAM] Bulb
[PLANT:MUNG_BEAN] Ground vine
[PLANT:MUSKMELON] Ground vine
[PLANT:ONION] Bulb
[PLANT:PARSNIP] Stalk
[PLANT:PASSION_FRUIT] Stalk
[PLANT:PEA] Stalk
[PLANT:PEANUT] Bulb
[PLANT:PEPPER] Stalk
[PLANT:PINEAPPLE] Amaranth
[PLANT:POTATO] Bulb
[PLANT:PURPLE_YAM] Hanging Vine
[PLANT:RADISH] Bulb
[PLANT:RASPBERRY] Bush
[PLANT:RED_BEAN] Stalk
[PLANT:RHUBARB] Amaranth
[PLANT:SOYBEAN] Stalk
[PLANT:SPINACH] Amaranth
[PLANT:SQUASH] Ground vine
[PLANT:STRING_BEAN] Hanging vine
[PLANT:SWEET_POTATO] Bulb
[PLANT:TARO] Bulb
[PLANT:TOMATO] Stalk
[PLANT:TOMATILLO] Stalk
[PLANT:TURNIP] Stalk
[PLANT:URAD_BEAN] Stalk
[PLANT:WATERMELON] Ground vine
[PLANT:WHITE_YAM] Bulb
[PLANT:WINTER_MELON] Ground vine
[PLANT:WILD_CARROT] Bulb
[PLANT:BERRIES_FISHER] Bush
[PLANT:BERRIES_PRICKLE] Bush
[PLANT:BERRIES_STRAW] Bush
[PLANT:BERRY_SUN] Bush
[PLANT:BULB_KOBOLD] Bulb
[PLANT:BUSH_QUARRY] Bush
[PLANT:GRASS_LONGLAND] Sedge
[PLANT:GRASS_TAIL_PIG] Sedge
[PLANT:GRASS_WHEAT_CAVE] Grain
[PLANT:HERB_VALLEY] Leafy green
[PLANT:MUSHROOM_CUP_DIMPLE] Mushroom
[PLANT:MUSHROOM_HELMET_PLUMP] Mushroom
[PLANT:POD_SWEET] Mushroom
[PLANT:REED_ROPE] Sedge
[PLANT:ROOT_HIDE] Bulb
[PLANT:ROOT_MUCK] Bulb
[PLANT:SLIVER_BARB] Ground vine
[PLANT:TUBER_BLOATED] Bulb
[PLANT:VINE_WHIP] Hanging vine
[PLANT:WEED_BLADE] Grain
[PLANT:WEED_RAT] Ground vine
Hey, those look great! 
You know you're somewhat creating standards don't you?. Apart from following your raws on my tileset I'll try to adapt the visual distinction designs you're making for stones, plants, etc to my style, so people can have some common visual references no matter what tileset they use 
Thanks! GemSet can be pretty abstract at times, but I'm trying to keep other tileset artists in mind with how I'm breaking up my raws. I anticipate people will make more detailed stones and plant graphics like in Phoebus.
Part of why I jumped in right off the bat to test and encourage, I love having talented artists around to make this stuff. I can pick up coding, I can pick up modding, picking up pixel-art isn't nearly the same thing. God knows the attempts I've made at trying to edit sets directly (rather than cut+paste existing stuff) were endless sources of frustration.
Heh. I feel exactly the opposite! I've never been patient enough to learn the technicalities of programming, so I naturally latched on to art and music. But really, I wouldn't mind trading my artsy-fartsyness for being a good programmer. I mean...You can make a game without art or music, but not programming. :/
Now that a lot of the symbols and shapes are finalized, can you make a quick reference in your first post in this thread? Similar to how Phoebus made it:
Yup, I'll be getting right on that after I finish up the next update. That plant image you see above is pretty close to what the cheatsheet will look like. The same goes for the
stone sheet I posted a while ago.
For the grains, are you planning on leaving it as just alive vs dead, or are you going to add a flowering state and just didn't have it done yet by the time you posted that graphic?
Also, you say fruit & flowers & pods are based on background color - I take it that the other part will vary with foreground color? I ask because if not, it would be nice to have a green variant of the "dead" graphic to indicate a living plant with its leaves missing.
Also also, how are you categorizing amaranths?
I'm not sure how I'd give stripped and dead plants different colors, but I'll give that a shot. I've also gone back and added some graphics I was missing like the flowered grains.
Heh. Amaranths do look pretty neat! Funny thing, I actually added amaranths before reading your post. There are sooo many amaranth-like plants that they deserve their own image.