[2] Infection of host plants (including Boechera and several other members of the mustard family) occurs via wind-borne basidiospores in late summer.

Spores produced in the aecia, referred to as aeciospores, are responsible for infecting P. monoica's alternate host plant (a grass species of Koeleria, Trisetum, or Stipa).

[3] The pseudoflowers are borne from basal leaf rosettes of the host mustard and mimic the yellow, early spring corollae of distantly related wildflowers (e.g. buttercups), not only in visible light but also in ultraviolet.

[5] The bees feed on a sweet, sticky substance similar to nectar that the fungus forces the plant to produce on the imitation flowers.

[6] Researchers have noted that Puccinia monoica is just one of a complex of closely related species which show considerable variation with regard to specific hosts and life cycle.

By contrast, Puccinia thlaspeos also produces pseudoflowers, but has no aecia or uredia phase, completing its entire life cycle on Arabis.