The bud bank in black oak (Quercusvelutina Lam.) trees is composed of four bud types, with the first three occurring on current shoots: (i) large buds in terminal clusters; (ii) large intercluster buds; (iii) small leafless buds; and (iv) preventitious buds on older shoots. Leafless buds may grow and preventitious buds may form epicormic shoots after injuries to large buds. We applied clipping treatments to small trees growing in either shade or light to test for crown recovery of leaf number, leaf area, leaf weight, shoot number, and total shoot length. Removing the terminal bud cluster almost doubled the proportion of intercluster buds that produced shoots and did not affect crown parameters, compared with control trees. Removing all large buds increased epicormic shoot production, but did not affect crown parameters. Removing current shoots reduced only leaf area and leaf number in the shade. The more extreme clipping treatments released primarily 2-year-old preventitious buds, but only a few older buds. Buds of all ages could be forced on isolated stem segments. Mortality of buds from the 1st to 2nd year was more than 90% for buds with leaves and about 50% for leafless buds.