I live in the UK and I am amazed that date palms do well here, in a country with much higher rainfall and it does get colder than the middle east. Also agaves seem quite happy (what tequila is made out of.
What's actually more surprising than cold tolerance is that water tolerance; desert-y plants tend to be adapted to be needing periods where their roots are dry for long periods. Let them stand with wet feet and many desert plants get very upset.
I guess the middle east was wetter even in roman times, so perhaps that answers part of that.
To flip the chicken question around a bit, it's perhaps odd that chickens can cope not with the cold but with their native heat so well, what with wearing a full-body, heavy down jacket all the time in their native tropical jungle.
My understanding is that they lose a lot of water through their skin. Not a deep enough understanding to know whether saying "chickens sweat a lot" is accurate, but I imagine in either case the evaporation helps them keep cool.
What's actually more surprising than cold tolerance is that water tolerance; desert-y plants tend to be adapted to be needing periods where their roots are dry for long periods. Let them stand with wet feet and many desert plants get very upset.
I guess the middle east was wetter even in roman times, so perhaps that answers part of that.
To flip the chicken question around a bit, it's perhaps odd that chickens can cope not with the cold but with their native heat so well, what with wearing a full-body, heavy down jacket all the time in their native tropical jungle.