need info on fukien tea versus cotoneaster ?

does anybody know if fukien tea is a variety of cotoneaster . i,v never grown fukien before i moved to thailand, i,m curious cos it looks like some cotoneaster we have in england, the leaf is the same , flowers the same, growth habit the same but you can get more interesting trunks on the fukien . you can buy it out here grown for bonsai with nice trunks or can buy garden plants grown as a bush . they tell me its not a native species but imported from china but its used everywhere here. hope somebody can satisfy my curiosity . regards john

These are two totally different species, from two different families.

From Wikipedia:

"Carmona is one of the genera in Boraginaceae."
"Cotoneaster (pronounced /kəˈtoʊniːˈæstər/)[3] is a genus of woody plants in the rose family, Rosaceae"

I read a lot of messages on forums about people having sick Carmonas because they have to be grown indoors here, but where you live, they should be thriving.

thanks alain for your quick reply they sure do look the same though. regards john

The correct botanical name for Fukien tea is Ehretia microphylla. It is apparently a wonderful bonsai subject in the tropics. You wouldn't be able to grow a Cotoneaster there, as it is a temperate genus.
Iris