[4][5] Sorus-like sporodochia form on freshly fallen leaves and petioles of Ginkgo biloba in early autumn in Asia and Europe and persist through the winter.

They produce slimy, hyaline 1-celled, cylindrical conidia.

Thick-walled, dark brown teliospores develop in leaf tissue, clustered in structures ~1 mm diam, similar to telia of rust fungi, causing black leaf spots surrounded by a gray halo.

After a year of dormancy, long-stalked basidia emerge through an apical channel from each teliospore, becoming round, cruciately-septate, and producing a succession of cylindrical basidiospores from four wart-like loci.

[2] Cultures can be isolated from discharged basidiospores or conidia spread on standard agar media.