Most citrus is self-pollinating and some do not need fertilization at all, the latter are called parthenocarpic. I would leave the flowers alone and see if it produces. If the tree is not old enough the flowers may also not be capible of producing fruit. Citrus must be a specific age to produce fruit.

"The original seed came from a tree at my cousins"

Rangpur Limes are seedless and are grown from cuttings or grafts.

Many citrus do not come exactly true from seed. This is very true for hybrids. You may get fruit but it will not be exactly the same.. maybe better...maybe worse.

Hope this helps
Andi

Thanks for your comments, Andi. I know that growing any cultivated fruit from seed is iffy as far as coming true is concerned, so I'm taking my chances.

"Rangpur Limes are seedless and are grown from cuttings or grafts."

Cuttings or grafts - yes. Seedless - no, according to the picture at FourWinds Nursery's website. So what do I have? The fruit from which this seed came was vivid red-orange like a Temple orange, in taste definitely sour (but not unripe-tasting), in fruit/peel characteristic definitely a mandarin (ditto for peel fragrance), and it had LOTS of seeds. (I'm sure about the seeds, besides having grown one - I had to tie a large quantity of seeds up in a bag when I made marmalade from the fruits I brought back!)

Fruit was about the same size as the average clementine one sees in the stores nowadays (but deeper stem to blossom), which puts it too big for a calamondin. Tree looked to be full-sized for a citrus, not a dwarf shrubby thing.

I'm definitely not in citrus territory, here in Virginia, so the plant is more of a memory-jogger from the one time I visited George in Walnut Creek (ca. 1989). The tree is plenty old enough to bear, but hasn't really been nurtured along the way. Since it's been transplanted, fed and cared for, it's now decided to get serious about blooming, so as I say, I'm looking forward to seeing what it might give me.

Robin

It does sound like a Rangpur lime aka Sour Mandarin. I did some research and found that they CAN contain 6-18 seeds. Sorry for the mislead.

Your tree should pollinate itself without help. The imperfect looking flowers just may be from its previous life of inattention. Your next flush of blooms may possibly be perfect.
Andi

Rangpur is normally quite seedy, is self-pollinating, and it normally does come true from seed, hence its use by the hundreds of millions under most of the Brazilian citrus industry, as a rootstock.

Imperfect flowers are unusual in citrus. Even in sterile varieties (Tahiti lime, many navels), the flowers tend to have all the parts present; they just don't work right (e.g., anthers with no good pollen inside).

Thanks, Andi and Malcolm. It's got over 20 buds on it, with two flowers open now, and the one blossom that dropped its petals and stamens rather than dropping the whole bloom now has a tiny fruit, well attached to the stem. So, I'll keep my fingers crossed.