What is the difference between hay and straw? – Reddit Post

Hello fellow gardeners! I have a question regarding hay and straw. I always thought those two are the same thing, but after a little “research” on YouTube I’ve got more questions now. As far as I understood, straw is made out of the stalks of dried up grain plants like wheat or oat etc, and hay is from Alfa-alfa?! I always thought hay was made up of dried up rice stalks and leaves after removing the grains. English is not my first language, and I am from a hilly region where rice is the only grain that’s grown. So my question is, is rice stalks hay or straw? I didn’t find any mention of rice stalks in any of the videos that explained the difference between hay and straw. This is important to me because if I want to Google uses of straw/hay I need to know if rice stalks is okay since it’s my only source of dried up stalks. We don’t have wheat, oats, alfa-alfa here. Here locally, we use this dried rice stalks for growing mushrooms, feeding cows, or to start a large bonfire. Sometimes it’s even used to thatch up temporary shelters for farmers or cattle in the middle of large farming lands or somewhere in the forest for emergency shelter from rain etc. It’s also very sturdy to make temporary ropes to tie up bales of hay/straw, bundles of sticks etc.