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In 1973, South African botanist Lyall Watson was the first to claim that plants can talk and their emotions can be recorded on a lie detector. His claims were, however, dismissed by many a scientists.

Now a recent study has discovered that plants not only do talk to each other, but they also respond to sound and indulge in constant chatter with one another.

The study published in the journal Trends in Plant Science reveals that plants communicate with each other by making "clicking sounds." Using powerful loudspeakers, The Bristol University researchers could listen to clicking sounds coming from the roots of corn saplings.

Also, when suspended in water, the roots played a continuous noise at a similar frequency to the clicks (220Hz) and scientists observed that the plants grew towards the source of the sound.

"Everyone knows that plants react to light, and scientists also know that plants use volatile chemicals to communicate with each other, for instance, when danger - such as a herbivore - approaches," Dr. Gagliano said in a university news release.

"I was working one day in my herb garden and started to wonder if maybe plants were also sensitive to sounds - why not? - so I decided as a scientist to find out."

Sounds waves can be transmitted through soil. This could be used by plans to receive a threat like drought from other plans which may be far away.

Sound and vibration may be playing an important part of survival for plants, giving them information about the environment around them, suspect scientists.

The research "opens up a new debate on the perception and action of people towards plants", which should perhaps be treated as "living beings in their own right," said Dr Galilano.