Second, mistletoe sheds a lot of leaves, which add to the depth of the leaf litter in a wood.

ECONOMIST: Ecology: Under the mistletoe | The

They are masters of camouflage and notoriously difficult to find, so closely do they resemble the dreary, gray leaf litter of early spring.

NPR: Morel Satisfaction: Stalking the Wild Mushroom

In the thick forest-savannah mosaic of northern Congo, many days' walk from any tarmac, your correspondent unearthed a milestone, half-buried in the leaf-litter, pointing to the small town of Badai, 15km to the east.

ECONOMIST: Seeing the wood