The ability to withstand high temperatures and therefore colonize habitats such as roofing, may be explained by the observation that ethanol vapour stimulates the formation of special heat-protective proteins that prevent cells from being killed under these relatively extreme conditions.

[3] Baudoinia compniacensis is black in colour and is partly responsible for the frequently observed phenomenon of 'Warehouse Staining', reported originally from the walls of buildings near brandy maturation warehouses in Cognac, France.

Baudoinia compniacensis is a cosmopolitan colonist of outdoor surfaces subjected to extreme daily temperature shifts, elevated high relative humidity, periodic wetting, and ambient airborne ethanol.

For example, the UAMH Centre for Global Microfungal Biodiversity[4] lists isolates recovered from tree bark,[a] concrete,[b] PVC plastic,[c] galvanized roofing,[d] masonry,[e] and stone.

[f] Baudoinia compniacensis is not uniquely associated with spirit maturation and manufacture as one sample that was examined came from a commercial bakery, although the fermentation byproducts of yeast include ethanol and its vapors.

[1] B. compniacensis was first investigated in 1872 when Michel Charles Durieu de Maisonneuve and Casimir Roumeguère examined a black, sooty growth found on the walls and roof tiles of buildings near distilleries in Cognac, France, at the instigation of the French pharmacist, Antonin Baudoin.

[2] Mosses, lichens and algae also grow on solid vertical surfaces, and slopes in the same fashion as the Angel's Share fungus and do not damage the infrastructure of built structures.

[1] This fits in well with the observed fact that the species favours surfaces that are subjected to great environmental exposure, as in roofing materials that experience extreme diurnal fluctuations in ambient conditions.