C. excelsa, Durio ceylanicus, Durio exarillatus Wight[1] Cullenia exarillata (Tamil Name: வெடிப்பலா,[2] Kadar (Anamalai hills) Name: முள்ளாலி,[3] Muthuvan (Anamalai hills) Name: காரானி) is a flowering plant evergreen tree species in the family Malvaceae endemic to the rainforests of the southern Western Ghats in India.

It is one of the characteristic trees of the mid-elevation tropical wet evergreen rainforests and an important food plant for the endemic primate, the lion-tailed macaque.

Leaves are simple, alternate, glabrous, shiny green above and covered beneath with silvery or orangish peltate scales.

[8] The species is characteristically found and dominant in the mid-elevation (700 m to 1400 m) tropical wet evergreen rainforests, which has been called the Cullenia exarillata - Mesua ferrea - Palaquium ellipticum type.

Cullenia exarillata is a dominant tree species in the mid-elevation tropical rainforests (between 700 and 1,400 m elevation) of the southern Western Ghats.

[16][17] Individual trees were estimated to produce between 1300 and 26000 flowers (average = 8734) chiefly between February and May, followed by a fruiting peak between May and September, in a rainforest at the southern tip of the Western Ghats.

In lower-elevation rainforests at Varagaliar in the Anamalai Hills, Cullenia exarillata comprised a smaller percentage (0.4 – 1.2%) of the annual diet of lion-tailed macaques, with the flowers, seeds, and aril being consumed.

[22] The study also reported that seeds of Cullenia exarillata were predated by three species of rodents (Malabar spiny dormouse, Rattus sp.

[24] Highly disturbed sites, including plantations where understorey vegetation and canopy trees were removed, have lower density of Cullenia exarillata.