Yet they produce the curious fruits that have given the tree the name of Buttonwood - hanging balls that persist on the tree over winter and then break up into fluff, when the fruitlets are borne away upon the down and the seeds thus widely distributed both by wind and water. The base of the trunk is dark brown, and deeply furrowed into broad, scaly ridges. May. Male and female clusters on separate twigs. By February or March you can see these seed balls broken open all over the ground. Hardy - a popular shade tree.
Wood is used for furniture, millwork, flooring, butcher blocks, and musical instruments.
With little resistance to decay, its wood is hard, tough and almost impossible to split. The pioneers cut trunks of great dimension into cross-sections which they then bored through the center, to make primitive solid wheels for ox carts. However after 200 or 300 years it becomes hollow. The hollowness of sycamores can reach truly stunning proportions. In Ohio there were specimens that could hold fifteen men on horseback or forty men off.