Hi Bill! Citrus flowers are perfect. Not just because of the fragrance, but biologically. Perfect means they all usually have male and female flower structures. All of your flowers should have both stamens (the male, pollen-bearing organ) and the pistil (the female, egg-bearing organ).

On another note, shout out for growing citrus in RI!

Liam

HAH, Barb, hopefully the flowers are not pathogenic!! Only a nurse could get a chuckle out of that :-) You mean parthenocarpic - the ability to produce fruit without the need for pollination. Pathogenic would mean they would be a pathogen - an infectious agent. :-) The bottom line Bill, put down the paintbrush. Wasting your time. Fruit will set on its own. It is perfectly normal for young trees to not set fruit, or set fruit and have all of it drop off. Until your tree is mature enough, it may not hold onto it's fruit. We haven't seen a photo, so we can't tell you if your tree has enough canopy to support fruit production, so, post up some photos. Encourage it to grow, give it as much outside sun as your weather will permit . It will start setting fruit, and eventually, you'll have more Meyer lemons than you will know what to do with.

Patty S.

D'oh!! Well I told you I never can remember the term, and Google said it was a word, lol!

Always glad to give a chuckle. ; )

Thanks for all the responses! Ok so just to clear up and provide some more information.....
I wouldn't say the tree is young since I've had it for about 18 years. It's about 4 feet tall and about three feet wide. It has set as many as 12 lemons (typically 8-10) each year. It is healthy and has plenty of leaves and strong growth each summer outdoors. As for "perfect" flowers, I have always seen only some with the female parts and others without the styles, for as long as the tree has flowered. So I assumed that pollination would help. Having said that, the ratio of "allegedly" male to female flowers was always about 50/50, so not really an issue. The only reason I posted now, after several years of success, is that there is but one lonely "female (or "perfect") blossom, and the rest (about 26-30) have only the pollen-bearing stamens, but no styles. There are about 20 more unopened flowers, so it remains to be seen what they will look like.

So after reading all you replies, it seems my tree is, for some reason, not producing flowers as they should be. Could it be environmental, even though the tree grows well and has for many years? Could it be a genetic quirk?

At least my sunroom smells great right now!

Thanks again to all.

There are no "male" and "female" flowers on citrus, Bill. They are all perfect - male and female parts in one flower. Truly. If your tree is not producing steadily, then you have to look at other reasons - enough light year 'round, adequate fertilizer, adequate canopy, etc. Pollination will not increase number of fruit with the Meyer. For a handful of other citrus cultivars, but not the Meyer. Can you tell us how much sun or additional full-spectrum light you provide and how often and with what you fertilize your tree?

Patty S.

I have had incompletely formed flowers on my Meyer before, as well. Bill, post a picture of some of the flowers.

Josh

Josh, you can have incomplete flowers, and that has more to do with less than desirable growing conditions, especially cold snaps during bloom development time as well as periods of water deficiency during bloom development times. Meyers are particularly sensitive to this. So, being in zone 6B, if you left your tree out a little too long (which Meyers can withstand, more so than other citrus cultivars), this may be affecting your blossom development. Or, if you let the tree get very dry during bloom development times. Also, inadequate fertilizing, inadequate light source, and simply an individually poor quality genetic specimen (not sure if your tree is grafted, grown from a cutting or a seedling). Meyer lemons tend to have this issue more often than other cultivars. Not sure why (perhaps John Merr can expand on this), but I'm thinking probably due to its hybrid genetics (incomplete chromosomes somewhere), and also its proclivity for blooming like mad.

Patty S.

Here are some photos I took this morning. So although I understand that citrus trees are SUPPOSED to have perfect flowers, my Meyer lemon has other ideas! Josh has said he has also had this experience with Meyers. Maybe this summer I will bring the tree indoors earlier before the nights are too cool.

The potted tree and several closeups of flowers with no female parts, and the one perfect flower with the pistil and style circled in red.

Yep, same thing I've experienced...incomplete flowers.

Bill, the first thing that jumps out at me is the pale cast of your tree's leaves. It's also in a fairly small container for the size of that canopy.

I'll recommend fertilizer as a starting point.

Josh

Greenman,
I repotted last spring when I brought it outdoors. Maybe the pot looks smaller in the photo because I cut off the bottom in the picture, but I'll pull it from the pot and check the roots. I do feed it regularly. As far as the color of the leaves, it's always been about the same. The leaves never were really dark green. I have a ruby grapefruit that I grew from seed, and that has darker leaves, but the lemon never did. Anyway, I'll check roots, feed more and bring it in earlier next fall when the nights get cool. Strange though that this is the first time there was only one single perfect flower. You can see the two remaining lemons from last year, and I've always gotten several fruits over the years. Maybe it's getting old, like me!
Thanks for your help.

Meyer lemons have male flower and female flowers. Female flowers are very distinct because they have long center that sticks out. The male flowers don't have that. They have pollen pieces. I've noticed this year after year. Last year, one side of out tree produced no female flowers.

Flower pistol abortion results in "male flowers". As mentioned, cold exposure appears to play a role in pistol abortion. A complete flower is know as a hermaphrodite flower, that is it contains both male and female reproductive structures within the flower.

I haven't seen flowers without anthers, but having a pistol. Such a flower would be a "female" flower.