A legume plant (also called sainfoin or cock's comb) grown as livestock forage and valuable for nitrogen-rich soil improvement.
Compound word from 'cow' (indicating use for cattle feeding) plus 'grass'. The plant was cultivated primarily as cattle fodder and improved pasture quality throughout Europe.
Cowgrass is actually a legume, not a grass—showing how 'grass' became a generic term for grazing plants—and it's nitrogen-fixing, meaning cows literally improved their own pastures by eating it!
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