The Almont flora of southwestern North Dakota occurs in silicified shale that preserves morphological and anatomical details of fruits and seeds. Among these remains we find a small multiloculate fruit containing around 15 - 20 seeds, with a single seed per locule. Fruits are 10.5 mm wide and 4.5 -5 mm high in transverse section and up to around 13 mm long. Seeds are borne with their long axes parallel to one another, and are separated by a distictive honeycomb-like pattern of septa. Septa are formed by two adjacent layers of prominent palisade cells. Seeds are flattened, ovoid, and triangular in section with a rounded end and pointed apex. They have an outer layer of somewhat elongate cells that parallel the surface of the seed, and tend to change orientation toward the inside of the seed. This portion of the seed coat is usually only partly preserved. An inner seed layer forms a reticulate pattern on the surface of the silicified seed casts. Based on comparisons of extant taxa, it appears that this fruit type is most closely allied to the core Malvales (Bombacaceae, Malvaceae, Sterculiaceae, and Tiliaceae). Of these families, the Almont fruit compares most closely with Tiliaceae, in particular because of the presence of single-seeded locules. The malvalean fruit from Almont is of particular significance because of its similarity with Carpolithus bowerbanki Reid & Chandler, an anatomically preserved form based on a single specimen from the Lower Eocene London Clay flora. Carpolithes bowerbanki is similar to the Almont fruit in many features, but somewhat larger. The Paleocene-Eocene was an interval of major faunal exchange across the North Atlantic. The similarities between the Almont fruit and Carpolithus bowerbanki strongly suggest that there were also shared floristic elements.

Key words: Almont, Carpolithes bowerbanki, fossil fruit, Malvales, Paleocene, permineralization