If I had it in me, I could have just left my understanding of this flower as “a beautiful flower with a curly thing in the middle.” But I don’t have it in me:
This is a pelargonium. I’m not sure what the species is. The curly thing in the middle is called the stigma. The stigma is part of the female reproductive system of a flower, the pistil. It sits on top of the style, which again sits on top of the ovary. The stigma is the thing that traps pollen. When pollen lands on the stigma (maybe it was brought there by a bee?), the pollen will grow a pollen tube down the style, and into the ovary of the pistil. You can see that there is already some pollen on the stigma in the photo. It’s happening!
But by now you might be whispering to yourself, in curiosity and wonder: “Pelargonium? Isn’t this a geranium?”
Great question! No, this is not a geranium. One of the things that distinguishes a pelargonium from a geranium, is the symmetry of the flower: The geranium flower has radial symmetry (actinomorphic), which means the flower is “capable of division by any longitudinal plane into essentially symmetrical halves” (thank you Merriam-Webster). The pelargonium, on the other hand, has a single symmetry plane (zygomorphic), which in this case means the lower three (anterior) petals are differentiated from the upper two (posterior) petals.