The teliospores are dark, two celled, thick walled spores. These spores overwinter before producing the basidiospore stage. The monokaryon derived from the basidiospore, in the rusts, are heterothallic as in the mushroom life cycle. The monokaryons in the mushroom life cycle does not produce sex organs and fusion takes place between hyphal cells of compatible monokaryons. The dikaryon in the mushroom life cycle does not produce additional spore stages prior to basidia and basidiospore formation unless an asexual stage is present, in which case conidia are produced.
Basidiocarp formation is absent in the rusts.