Elaeagia utilis

Elaeagia utilis, locally known as the barniz de Pasto tree or mopa-mopa, is a medium-sized evergreen tree in the Rubiaceae native to the cloud forests of the Andes in southwestern Colombia and northern Ecuador. It typically grows 8-20 m tall with a straight, slender trunk and a narrow, leafy crown. The opposite, simple leaves are large, elliptic-oblong, 15-30 cm long, glossy dark green above and paler beneath, with prominent pinnate venation and conspicuous interpetiolar stipules that are characteristic of the family. Small, fragrant, white to greenish-white tubular flowers are borne in dense, branched, terminal panicles, followed by small, dry, two-valved capsules. The tree is best known not for botanical features but for the sticky, pale-green resin exuded from the apical leaf buds, which Andean Indigenous craftspeople have collected for centuries to produce the famous mopa-mopa or barniz de Pasto lacquer used to decorate carved wooden objects.