Ryegrass is a kind of grass that farmers grow as food for animals — cows, sheep, horses eat it in the field or as hay. It grows quickly and can stay green when other grass looks tired. The English word is written as rye plus grass, as if it were the grass that belongs with the grain rye. That is how the modern name is built. Though actually there is also an older English name, ray grass, sitting right beside it in the history of the word, so the link to the bread-grain rye is not a story to bang on the table. What a learner needs is simpler: this is pasture grass, not the rye in rye bread. In Taiwan, farmers know it well as 黑麥草; it is often sown in the cool months to feed animals or to cover empty fields.

黑麥草