GAUSMANN and G.H.LOOS call this whitish-haired plant, which is similar to the much less hairy Cotton Thistle Onopordum acanthium, Onopordum x hortorum, but they didn't provide a valid description. It is offered as an ornamental plant, and naturalized plants have been and continue to be found in many areas. GAUSMANN and G.H.LOOS, in Florist. Rundbr. 50 (2016): 159-174, suggest a hybrid origin involving Onopordum acanthium, Onopordum illyricum, and other Onopordum species. In the Netherlands and Belgium, the taxon is called Onopordum x beckianum A.JOHN 1907, a name considered in some botanical publications to be a synonym of Onopordum x delortii TIMB.-LAGR., the hybrid between Onopordum acanthium and Onopordum illyricum. The Austrian botanist Norbert Griebl, however, suggests in Neilreichia 16 (2026): 23 that the whitish-haired plant is a horticultural selection of Onopordum acanthium. Naturalizations of this clan have been mentioned in botanical literature since at least 1998.