It appears as if the flowers on my buddha's hand tree only contain the male parts (stamens?) but no female parts (the beginning of the new fruit, what's this called in English?).

I made some pictures for illustration...

Flower number one, still opening...


Flower number two, opened but no little "hand" visible...


Flower number three on the right, at the end of its life. No little hand visible as far as I can tell...




The flower on the left looks even more weird. Could this be a female flower, or is this flower just badly formed?

Your tree just didn't produce female flowers. Maybe next flowers will have a little hand inside, or not if the plant is too young / has too little leaves / not enough sun etc. The weird flower just opened too fast, pollen is immature so it's green.

The Buddah's hand Citron fruit is always totally seedless. Perhaps the absence of female parts in the flowers is the simple reason why ? The unusual flower structure is the architecture of the fingered citron. They seem to develop into tiny friutlets then continue to enlarge.

My lemon tree had incomplete flowers this spring--all but 1 flower--I found one last week that set.

I think the problem in my case was the fact that the tree was defoliated by the cold this winter. In normal conditions, a citrus tree converts new buds to flowers during a period of rest--in temperate climates that rest is imposed by cold. In tropical climates, that rest is imposed by the dry season. This process requires time and some energy for development. If a citrus tree does not get enough time for the differentation, the flowers may be imperfect. In my case, I believe that the lack of leaves limited the development of the flowers.

I will wait and see what the remaining flowers bring. Until now 3 flowers have opened and none seems to have the little hand inside. The remaining flowers are still developing.

The plant must already have produced some fruit in the past, as there are a couple of fruit attachments still present. (sorry, don't know the correct English word for those attachments... )

All flowers were fruitless and fell off soon after they opened. That's a number of weeks ago already.

Today I noticed some new flower buds are developing. I hope these flowers will be normal ones!

The first one of the new flowers finally opened. This sure is a slow growing plant! But now the flower appears to be coplete, including the little fruit...



The flower is really attractive to hover flies!



I have found plenty of new flowers developing on the plant. I hope they will all set!

It is unlikely that they will all set, most citrus only set a few percent of the flowers. There are a few things you can do to maximize fruit set--1) do not let the tree get too dry during the next 2-3 months. 2) You can spray the foliage with a 1% solution of potassium nitrate or a low biuret urea a couple times.

A citrus tree will only set as much fruit as it thinks it can support--that is based on both water and nutrients.

I know they won't all set, but I have high hopes!

First flower dropped, beginnig fruit is clearly visible now...


Let's hope it stays on the plant!

The first fruit is still on the tree but isn't growing. The second fruit is growing nicely though...

How dumb can one be... I accidentally hit the buddha's hand tree and guess what... the single biggest buddha's hand fruit broke off! Aaaarrrhh!!!!